Oh I just love birds, and I have so many around here. Every once in a while I have to get the bird books out and look one up.
My daughter is so jealous of all the birds in our yard. I saw two Mocking Birds raise their little ones this summer, and I realized something that I never knew. They never did their singing once they had the babies, only the warning sounds, but once they left the nest they started to sing again. I thought they sang all the time. Dummy me. ;)
I have never seen that bird before, and even the Jay looks different than ours. Ours have a crown on them. Thanks for the pics, I enjoyed them.
I do too. We don't have a lot of different varieties around here, so I am always happy to be able to identify a new bird in the neighborhood.
The jay is called a Mexican Scrub Jay. They are similar to the Florida Scrub Jay, but are found here in the west. My two jays are a mated pair and very tame. They will take peanuts out of my hand. They nested in the backyard this spring and I loved watching them take care of their babies. I am very attached to my jays, although they really are very mean birds - nest robbers and bullies in the neighborhood....but I love mine anyway. I've been feeding this pair for years here. I can't go out in the backyard without them following me around demanding their peanuts.