Kathy Morrison, age 12, of Indianapolis, Ind., for her question:
IS A BLUEBIRD THE SAME AS A BLUE JAY?
Both of them wear blues, but in almost every other respect the bluebird and the blue jay are different. The main difference is in character. The gentle, sweet‑singing bluebird is friendly enough to live in a birdhouse. The larger, loudmouthed blue jay is a bossy bird, greedy and determined to make life miserable for all the other birds in the neighborhood. The bluebird is related to the sweet‑singing thrushes. Most of his outfit is soft heavenly blue, with neat black tips on his wings. He has touches of white on his tummy, set off with a rusty red weskit. The little charmer spends the winter with friends and relatives in the Southern part of the Unites States. He returns to other Northern nesting sites just in time to welcome the first breath of spring with a song.
If you set out the right kind of birdhouse, the bluebird parents may use it to build a nest of grasses and feathers. The mother bird lays from four to six blue eggs, and both parents gather weevils, grasshoppers and other garden pests to feed their growing chicks.
The blue jay is a large slim bird with a long tail, handsomely dressed in blue and white, accented with little black bars. His conversation is limited to a loud, aggressive squark‑and everyone who hears it knows that the neighborhood bully has come to town.
The blue jay is a permanent resident in many evergreen forests of North America. Often he visits towns and farms, where his aggressive ways drive away the useful and friendly birds. Usually his nest is in the fork of a tree. But sometimes he drives away a bluebird family from a hollow trunk and takes over their nest. The cruel character may devour the eggs and even the young chicks.
True, the blue jay is an elegant, handsome fellow, but he has no friends in the bird world. What's more, the squarking bully often dive‑bombs and scares the neighborhood cats and dogs.
Right now the pretty bluebirds are getting ready to fly South, but the bullying blue jays will stay through the winter. The bluebirds will return in early spring, and most likely you will hear their sweet voices before you see them. However, don't expect them to stay in your garden if the squarking blue jay is around to scare them.