This is a new bird for me today – a Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri). He is the Provincial Bird of British Columbia, but I had never seen one before today. He caught me totally off-guard, so you’ll have to ignore all the bad photography, rotten composition, blown sky and highlights and crappy all-around shooting. All my images were really dark and it took a heap of playing in PS to salvage something from them. You’ll also have to ignore the peeling paint and the general mess and bird poops.
I was sitting at my computer by my bird-watching window and caught a flash of something larger than normal outside the window. Standing up to look, I saw this blue bird who was after some in-the-shell peanuts I had sitting out on the table there. So I ran for the camera – wrong lens on it, but my big telescoping one with the doubler has bit the dust (I tried it anyway) then I tried the doubler on the Nikon 18-70 (kit) lens and it balked like crazy and refused to focus at all. So I threw on the macro 105 with the doubler and that was much too close!!! Took off the doubler and just shot with the plain old macro … and this is what I got …
Steller's Jay - about 4 feet away from me - Not too shy, eh?
Steller's Jay - Cheekin' me off from the top of the bird feeder post
Steller's Jay
Steller's Jay
I already knew it was a jay of some kind, but wasn’t sure which one it was, so that took me off exploring the 3Dubs to find out ….
I started off (as always) with a Google Search … I just typed in “Jay” and hit the “Go” button …
That didn’t look too promising (too wide a search) so I clicked on the “Images” link at the top …
… and look at that! Right off the bat I get a picture to click on … woohoooooo …
Since my bird didn’t have any white on it, I discounted the Blue Jay and clicked on the Steller’s Jay instead … and yup – that’s my bird! Thank you, Steven Pinker!
So now I went back to a Google search and searched “Steller’s Jay” … and ended up here … ( I skipped a few uninteresting steps) …
You can always count on Wikipedia for answers and info … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steller%27s_Jay
The Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) is a jay native to western North America, closely related to the Blue Jay found in the rest of the continent, but with a black head and upper body. It is also known as the Long-crested Jay, the Mountain Jay, and the Pine Jay. It is the only crested jay west of the Rocky Mountains.
The Steller’s Jay shows a great deal of regional variation throughout its range. Blackish-brown-headed birds from the north gradually become bluer-headed farther south. The Steller’s Jay has a more slender bill and longer legs than the Blue Jay and has a much more pronounced crest. The head is blackish-brown with light blue streaks on the forehead. This dark colouring gives way from the shoulders and lower breast to silvery blue. The primaries and tail are a rich blue with darker barring.
It occurs over virtually the whole of the western side of North America from Alaska in the north to Central America in the far south and east to south-western Texas, completely replacing the Blue Jay in most of those areas. Some hybridization with the Blue Jay in Colorado has been reported. The Steller’s Jay lives in coniferous and mixed woodland, but not in completely dense forest, and requires open space. It typically lives in flocks of greater than 10 individuals.
Food is gathered from both the ground and from trees: the Steller’s Jay’s diet consists of a wide range of seeds, nuts, berries and other fruit. Many types of invertebrates, eggs and nestlings are eaten, and acorns and conifer seeds form a staple at some times of the year. It is a frequent visitor at picnics and camp sites.
The nest is usually in a conifer but is sometimes built in a hollow in a tree. Similar in construction to the Blue Jay’s nest, it tends to be a bit larger (25 cm to 43 cm), using a number of natural materials or scavenged trash, often mixed with mud. Between two and six eggs are laid during breeding season. The eggs are oval in shape with a somewhat glossy surface. The background colour of the egg shell tends to be pale variations of greenish-blue with brown- or olive-coloured speckles. The clutch is usually incubated entirely by the female for 17 to 18 days.
Like all jays, its calls are varied and include rattling and guttural sounds too numerous to list. Notably, its alarm call is a harsh nasal “wah”. It also imitates the cry of the Red-tailed Hawk, which has the effect of causing other birds and prey creatures to vacate feeding areas as the Steller’s Jays approach.
This bird is named after the German naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller who discovered them in 1741 (Evans 1986).
The Steller’s Jay is the provincial bird of British Columbia.
Back to Google Images and I come across this cool drawing of the Steller’s Jay …
Ain’t he adorable???
I have always admired people who could do art of any kind … which brings me to the art of Bob Hines …
For wildlife and wild bird paintings, they don’t get much better than this!
I’d never heard of Bob Hines until that Jay came to steal that peanut off my table.
Bob Hines led a most interesting life and left a legacy that will remain forever. Here’s some info about him:
ROBERT W. HINES
(1912 – 1994)
Robert W. Hines was man of great personal charm and a deceptively relaxed, almost sleepy, manner. Meeting him for the first time, one would never- suspect what a huge volume of work he produced. His studio was in his home where he worked full-time upon retiring as artist-illustrator for the Bureau of Sports Fisheries and Wildlife, Washington, D.C.
Bob Hines was born in Columbus, Ohio on February 6, 1912. He attended Clintonville Elementary School until the family moved to Fremont, Ohio in 1921. There he went to Otis and Stamm Elementary Schools, and Fremont Ross High School from which he graduated in 1926.
As a boy, he hiked, fished, and camped in the woods and along the Sandusky River near Fremont. He had a large backyard zoo where at one time or another he made pets of pheasants, quail, crows (one albino), raccoons, opossums, woodchucks, squirrels, moles, mallards, widgeon, great horned and snowy owls, gulls, pigeons, chickens, dogs, cats, snakes, turtles, and several aquariums of fish.
He joined the Boy Scouts when he was 12 years old, and became an Eagle Scout with Silver Palm. Later he was a nature instructor in three Scout camps and counselor for most of the nature merit badges.
During the depression he worked at various jobs in restaurants, in a drop-forging plant, and on road-construction crews. He taught himself how to mount birds and animals and operated a small taxidermy shop for a while; when he was forced by illness to slow down, he turned to his former avocations of drawing and painting.
Early in 1939 Bob Hines became Staff Artist for the Ohio Division of Conservation in Columbus, Ohio. Just before he began work there, he learned that the job would require some specialized work in creating oil paintings of wildlife habitat. He promptly went for help to his former high school art teacher, Miss Mary Williams, and she gave him a four-day refresher course that got him off to a good start on his new job.
In July 1948, Mr. Hines was asked by Frank Dufresne, then Chief of Information, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to come to Washington as an Artist-Illustrator. There his first supervisor was Miss Rachel Carson, who was at that time near publication of her epic The Sea Around Us.
Mr. Hines wrote and illustrated Ducks at A Distance, which was published by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife; other books he has illustrated are Wildlife in America. by Mattheissen: North America Waterfowl, by Day; Alaska’s Animals and fishes, by Dufresne; The Upland Game Hunter’s Bible, by Holland; Migration of Birds, by Lincoln; Bass Fishing in America, by Bauer; Crusade for Wildlife, by Arefethan; Outdoors Unlimited, Outdoor Writers Association of America; Pheasants in North America, by Allan; Honker, by McClung; Face of North America, by Farb; Waterfowl Tomorrow, and Birds in Our Lives, both Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife publications.
Three Boy Scout Merit Badge Pamphlets have been illustrated by Mr. Hines, and his work has appeared in thirteen magazines, including the New Yorker, Reader’s Digest, Sports Afield, Natural History and Outdoor Life.
Mr. Hines was one of the two men who helped inaugurate the Wildlife Conservation Postage Stamp Series, and designed the first of four stamps in the series. They are Wild Turkey, Pronghorn Antelope, King Salmon (all 1956), and Whooping Crane (1957). The crane stamp was selected by a British philatelic poll as one of the ten best stamps in the world for 1957.
The drawings and paintings Mr. Hines did for the Ohio Division of Conservation and for the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife have been reproduced by conservation magazines in every state, several in Canada, and even in the Soviet Union.
Because he worked for a highly scientific organization, Mr. Hines had to be extremely accurate in his work; he traveled in all but three states, sketching, taking photographs, and gathering data for his illustrations. He served as consultant and administrator for the duck stamp contest each year, and somewhere along the line found time to paint three huge wildlife scenes (oil on canvas) that now hang as murals in the Interior Building in Washington, D.C. The Department of the Interior has recognized his ability with three Meritorious Awards.
Bob had three children: John, Nancy, and Tim. His hobbies were hunting, fishing, and photography.
That’s from this website here.
When I grow up, maybe I’ll be a famous bird artist … along with also being taller and richer, eh?
Cheers,
