In honour of Canada Day, we are celebrating our national bird, the Canada Jay!
Did you know that the Canada Jay will nest and start to raise their young during late winter and early spring when the snow is still out? Unlike most birds, that nest in late spring, they have access to enough food to get their young through the colder months. In order to do this, they will store food throughout the year into different caches to use when food is hard to find. They have a sticky saliva that helps glue food to bark and other crevices in trees. They prefer higher elevation and the cold weather since if helps them preserve their food for long periods of time.
If you are going camping this summer in coniferous and spruce forests, you might just spot one of these fun birds trying to steal some of your food.
Photo from National Park Service