Indian Roller Bird

The Blue Jay or Indian Roller is a passerine bird which is mainly found in the Indian Subcontinent. There are different subspecies of Blue jay which are found in various parts of India and in eastern and central United States.

The bird's name derives from its noisy, garrulous nature, and it sometimes also called a "jaybird".

The quick classification of Indian Roller Bird is as below,

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Sub phylum	Vertebrata
Class	Aves
Order	Coraciiformes
Family	Coraciidae
Genus	Coracias
Species	C.benghalensis
Zoological Name	Coracias benghalensis

Physical Characteristics:

The Blue Jay is one of the stocky birds and it is 26-27 cm long from the bill to tail. They weigh about 80 -100 g. The life span of the Blue jay exceeds up to 17 years of age. The breast of blue jay is brownish and not blue. The crown and vent are blue in color. The primaries are deep purplish blue and the tail is sky blue and the central feathers are dull green in color. The neck and throat look like purplish lilac with white shaft streaks. The bare patch around the eye is ochre in color. It has strong black bills which is used for cracking the nuts and acorns, and for eating corn, grains, seeds and insects such as beetles, grasshoppers, and caterpillars.

Blue Jays communicate together both vocally and with body language using their crest. The crest is held down when it associates with mate, family as well as feeding nestlings and incubating. The crest level denotes the aggression level of the bird. If the crest is lower, then the bird's aggression level is low.

If the crest is higher, then the bird's aggression level is high. The crest is always held up when it squawks. These are one of the excellent mimics of the Jay Bird.

Blue jays use their throat and upper esophagus to carry their food. They can store 2-3 acorns in the pouch, one in their mouth and one in the tip of the bill.

Habitat:

Blue jays main habitat is cultivation, thin forest and grassland. They are found in almost all kinds of forests. They are mostly found near the edges of the forest rather than deep forest. They are also spotted in urban and suburban areas, especially where the oaks or bird feeders are found. They are often seen on roadside electric wires as well.

Migration:

Blue jay is not migratory in nature, sometimes it take seasonable movements. They do migrate in flock of 5 to 250 birds. It has been found that less than 20% of Blue Jays do migrate.

Food Habits:

Blue Jays mainly prefer eating nuts, seeds of trees, shrubs and grains, grasshoppers and crickets, butterflies and moths. They also take frog, dead and injured small vertebrates as their food. Blue Jays sometimes raid other birds nests for eggs and nestlings, and sometimes take dead or dying adult birds, acorns, nuts, fruits, and grains as their food.

The Blue jay is mainly found in the foot hills of the Himalayas, Southern India and Western India. It can also be found in the Corbett National Park, Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary, Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary, Nagarhole National Park, Rajaji National Park, and Kanha National Park in India.

It is also found in Pakistan, Burma, Southeast Asia, Tibet, and parts of China.

Subspecies of Blue jay

There are totally three recognized subspecies found widespread out of which three are native to India. Coracias benghalensis benghalensis: This subspecies is commonly found in the regions of eastern Arabia and north eastern India

Coracias benghalensis indicus: This subspecies is commonly found in the regions of India and Sri Lanka.

Coracias benghalensis affinis: The affinis race of the Indian Roller is found in Nortrh East India. It is darker and larger than the nominate race, with a purple throat and unstreaked face.

Mating and Nesting:

Blue jays form lasting bonds during their courtship period until one of them dies. The mating season happens during the month of May each year. A group of blue jays including one female would gather on top of a tree. When the female starts flying, she will be followed by the males in the group until she lands in another location. The male will show off his interest by nodding his head up and down.

Then, the female will choose her mate among the male blue jays and leave the group. The male blue jay strengthens their bond by providing food to the female blue jay. By this manner, the female tests the male's ability to get food for their future family. The male also brings special twigs and other things to build the nest. These are carefully examined by the female before putting in their prospective nest. The preferable location to build the nest is mixed wood and deciduous forests and parks.

Blue jays are typically noisy birds. But they tend to be quiet when they are in their nest. They build their nest at a height between 8 to 30 feet. Usually they prefer the top of a tree to build their nests. They use sticks, barks, leaves, roots, twigs and grass to make a cup shaped nest at top of tree. If they find the area is suitable, then they start looking for bigger twigs to create a platform. Then they build a softer cup for the eggs.

Blue jays start mating when they are one year old or sometimes even earlier. It lays three to six eggs at a time. It lays eggs in tree holes and other similar places. The incubation period of the eggs last for about 18–20 days. The male blue jay sometimes shares this incubation duty with the female. In this time, the male blue jay brings the food for his mate. The eggs are colored blue, green or yellow usually with spots of brown and grey in color.

When the hatchlings grow, both parents look for food. After three weeks, the young ones can feed themselves. The young ones will stay with their parents until they are two months old and then they will leave their nest.

Threats and conservation:

Their population is too secure because they do well with human. The most frequent reason for death comes from attacks by cats and dogs. In India, Hindus consider the Blue jay as sacred. It has been treated as a State Bird in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh states in India. They are sometimes hunted for sports and for food.

Interesting facts about Blue Jay:

1. Both male and female blue jays look alike and it is hard to distinguish the male blue jays from the females just by mere observation. Both will participate in the incubation.
2. They form large feeding flocks in autumn season.
3. Blue jays can be able to mimic the sound of hawks especially the red-shouldered hawk. It is used to inform other jays that a hawk is present.

4. When the blue jays are searching for food or trying to get the food from the birds near them, it produces a hawk sound. Various sports groups have chosen blue Jay as mascots.
5. Blue jays are very territorial in nature. When cats,dogs and even humans go near their nest they become harsh and start chasing.
6. Researchers found that the diet of the blue jay composed mostly of insects and nuts and they won't eat the eggs and nestlings of other small birds.
7. Though the blue jay looks in a vivid blue color, it is not blue in real. It is because of the distortion of light or refraction. It loses its blue color when the feather is crushed out.
8. The female jays develop a naked portion of their stomach skin called incubation patch or the brood which does not have feathers and are filled with small blood vessels. It is used to provide heat during the incubation of eggs and for the young blue jays.
9. It has been given the status of State bird in many states of India.
10. It does not face the threat of extinction.
11. In nature, it is too aggressive and dominant.