At 08:49 PM 6/27/2003 -0700, Martyn wrote:
>Doug, down in Yuba pass you said you had a recording of a Steller's jay
>imitating a Raptor, can you post this for me/us? As I said, I have
>Starlings making calls of a Red-Tail Hawk and also British Starlings
>imitating Buzzards back home, but not a Steller's Jay. I have these
>Starlings calling all day in my garden with these deception calls
>scaring off the feeding birds, cunning buggers eh?
There's a copy of it at http://www.naturesongs.com/ - go to "North American
Bird Sounds" - "Passeriformes" - "Corvidae" - "Steller's Jay" to hear it.
This recording was one I caught in the Pinyon Pine/Juniper belt near
Sedona, Arizona one afternoon. No feeders anywhere around, so it was a
"natural" deception call.
Most of the accounts that I hear of Steller's and Blue Jays doing this are
from people who observe it around feeders, but there is a natural basis for
the behavior - assumedly to scare other birds away from a resource. Jay
mimicry is primarily mimicry of raptors - Red-tailed Hawks, Sharp-shinned
Hawks, etc.
If others have recordings or even accounts of Jay or other Corvid mimicry,
please post them or let us hear about them. "Deception Mimicry" is a
special form of mimicry and it is poorly understood and little-studied.
Doug
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Zonies Galleria
215 N. Hwy. 89A
Sedona, AZ 86336
928/282-5995 ph/fax
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