Dan Strickland, retired Chief Park Naturalist of Algonquin Park, presented a talk on the “Triumph and Downfall of the Canada Jay” at the February 20 meeting of Madawaska Valley Gardening Club in Barry’s Bay. He began with a history of the Canada Jay, also known as the Gray Jay, from earliest observations of French ornithologists several hundred years ago to the US Ornithological Society’s restoration of the name to “Canada Jay” in 2017. Another name for the bird is the “whiskeyjack,” and an Ontario Parks blog post says this name for the bird comes from the Cree and Algonquin languages (Wìsakedjàk in Algonquin, Wihsakecahkw in Cree). Strickland’s lengthy career in Quebec and Algonquin Park boreal forests involved research of the Canada Jay. In retirement, he now studies a different Jay on Vancouver Island but Strickland’s talk to MV Gardeners concentrated on his research into Algonquin Park’s Canada Jay. (Above: Canada Jay on nest, photo Dan Strickland)
Research in Algonquin Park involved careful observation of nests and banding young birds with unique identifiers. This yielded interesting facts about the Canada Jay:
- non-migratory
- high survival rate
- high territorial fidelity; i.e. pairs stay in their own territory
- average life span of 10 to 14 years. The oldest Canada Jay observed in Algonquin Park was 16 years old.
- deaths tend to occur in summer
- overwintering adults weigh 65 to 75 gsm
As the Canada Jay is a non-migratory bird of the boreal forest, Strickland’s research examined how it survives through winter. He found that the bird does not eat seeds or cones. Instead its diet consists of perishable food such as: mushrooms, berries, insects/spiders, bits of meat from small mammals or carcasses. The Canada Jay divides its food into tiny bits and uses very sticky saliva to store thousands of little parcels of food in gaps under tree bark or under lichen.
Social life of the Canada Jay
Canada Jay pairs mate for life and stay in their own territory. They nest very early, mid-February, and lay three to four eggs by Easter. At three weeks, the chicks are fledglings; by six weeks, they are fully grown, able to fly and begin storing their own food. The adult pair allows only the dominant juvenile to stay with them, so the other young birds must find their own territory. The dominant juvenile remains with the parents when they nest again the following year, but is not allowed to help feed the new chicks. Once they are fledged, the older juvenile can socialize with the young ones.
Five Big Questions:
- Why does the Canada Jay nest so early? Strickland (inset left) suggests this is to avoid predation by what he terms the “Killer Beast of the North” i.e. red squirrel. It also gives the juveniles more chance of establishing their territory and allows more time to store food before next winter.
- Why do the adults prevent older juveniles from helping? Strickland thinks this is to minimize traffic to and from the nest, to avoid predators.
- Why are the siblings ejected? Strickland’s research found that 40 percent of the dominant juveniles survive to end of summer while only 15 to 20 percent of the ejected juveniles survive that long.
- How does the Canada Jay recover its stored food? As there is little direct proof that they recover the food, Strickland says the bird probably has a very good memory!
- How does the perishable food stored by the bird last until next fall? He conducted experiments to determine the nutritional value of perishable food stored in different tree species in Algonquin Park and found the highest food value by far was that of food stored in black spruce bark. The range of the black spruce in North America is equivalent to the Canada Jay’s range.
Downfall
A declining population of Canada Jays in Algonquin Park has been identified, probably due to climate change. The MV Gardeners appreciated learning more about this boreal bird, and enjoyed the excellent photographs and detailed data presented by Strickland.
