Who is this extremely squeaky bird?
July 1, 2017 12:24 PM Subscribe
It was way up high, so this is the best picture I could get.
Best answer: I second zadcat, and also note that as Corvids, blue jays are smart and sometimes pretty obnoxious. Click the top 'call' link here to see if it's the same squeaking.
posted by workerant at 12:40 PM on July 1, 2017
posted by workerant at 12:40 PM on July 1, 2017
Response by poster: I thought it looked like one too mostly because of the face markings, and we have tons of blue jays here (in Colorado, and especially in my yard), but it didn't sound like one, and I'm pretty sure it was a lot bigger. There are both blue jays and that guy yelling outside right now, and that guy sounds...different. Higher pitched, not as rattly maybe.
I'll go with 'really weird blue jay and/or normal blue jay and there's something wrong with me today' unless I get a better explanation, though.
posted by ernielundquist at 12:42 PM on July 1, 2017
I'll go with 'really weird blue jay and/or normal blue jay and there's something wrong with me today' unless I get a better explanation, though.
posted by ernielundquist at 12:42 PM on July 1, 2017
Best answer: The fluffyness makes me think it is a younger bird, possibly born in the spring
posted by Jacen at 12:47 PM on July 1, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Jacen at 12:47 PM on July 1, 2017 [5 favorites]
Sometimes bluejays sound like squeaky, rusted hinges.
posted by Elsie at 1:49 PM on July 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Elsie at 1:49 PM on July 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Ha ha, everyone is right!
I left out some background I thought was superfluous at the time: I was with another adult human who lives here at the blue jay infested house, we'd been hearing a hawk calling (we have lots of those here too), and figured out it was coming from that bird, so at first we thought maybe it was a baby hawk.
However, neither of us could see it clearly at all, so I zoomed my camera as much as I could, took some pictures, and probably would have immediately recognized it as a blue jay if we both hadn't thought it was a hawk at first. So I summarily dismissed the blue jay diagnosis based on the fact that I know blue jays don't sound like that, and of course, dismissed the hawk diagnosis based on the fact that that's not a hawk. So I chose not to muddy the question with all my wild speculation, because obviously, I was wrong about everything, and I figured someone would immediately identify it as a third type of bird I hadn't thought of.
But, workerant's link informs me that "Blue Jays frequently mimic hawks, especially Red-shouldered Hawks."
Boom.
My mistake was not categorizing this as some kind of human psychology question.
Thanks!
posted by ernielundquist at 2:04 PM on July 1, 2017 [10 favorites]
I left out some background I thought was superfluous at the time: I was with another adult human who lives here at the blue jay infested house, we'd been hearing a hawk calling (we have lots of those here too), and figured out it was coming from that bird, so at first we thought maybe it was a baby hawk.
However, neither of us could see it clearly at all, so I zoomed my camera as much as I could, took some pictures, and probably would have immediately recognized it as a blue jay if we both hadn't thought it was a hawk at first. So I summarily dismissed the blue jay diagnosis based on the fact that I know blue jays don't sound like that, and of course, dismissed the hawk diagnosis based on the fact that that's not a hawk. So I chose not to muddy the question with all my wild speculation, because obviously, I was wrong about everything, and I figured someone would immediately identify it as a third type of bird I hadn't thought of.
But, workerant's link informs me that "Blue Jays frequently mimic hawks, especially Red-shouldered Hawks."
Boom.
My mistake was not categorizing this as some kind of human psychology question.
Thanks!
posted by ernielundquist at 2:04 PM on July 1, 2017 [10 favorites]
Validating that jays will indeed mimic hawks. A Stellars Jay once completely convinced rtha and me that we were hearing a hawk. Glad you figured it out.
posted by gingerbeer at 5:20 PM on July 1, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by gingerbeer at 5:20 PM on July 1, 2017 [3 favorites]
Jays do an excellent imitation of broadwing hawks here in N.H.
posted by Hobgoblin at 9:56 PM on July 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Hobgoblin at 9:56 PM on July 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by zadcat at 12:26 PM on July 1, 2017