[CT Birds] How many raptors do Blue Jays do?

[Tammy Eustis]

I can attest to at least one accipiter mimicked by our jays: Cooper's hawk. This didn't start until the Cooper's set up house in our side woods 2 summers ago. The season was filled with a wide range of Coop noises, from aggressive hissing (as they battled for space against the red-shouldereds), to courtship, contact calls, feeding, flight, etc. Well, the jays fooled me a couple of times, making the adult's "kek-kek-kek" call, especially when they wanted to clear the feeders of other birds. This backfired on our mimics, however - once the four young Coops had fledged, they would go flying *toward* anything that made the adult call noise. The blue jays learned from their mistake very quickly!
Most of the time, they copy the red-shouldereds - again, usually to sweep everyone else away from the feeders so they can have a prime spot. I've also heard the red-tailed call coming from jays.
- Tammy Eustis, Chester

-----Original Message-----
From: David.F.Provencher at dom.com [mailto:David.F.Provencher at dom.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 10:05 AM
To: ctbirds at lists.ctbirding.org
Subject: [CT Birds] How many raptors do Blue Jays do?


Blue Jays are notorious mimics. The most frequently heard raptor imitation
that I have heard them do is Red-shouldered Hawk. I have never heard one
mimic an accipiter. I'm curious, what other raptors have the readers of
this forum heard Blue Jay's mimic?

Dave



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