Blue Jay (Foster)

While visiting my friend Jenn, this was the second video we caught.  This was on June 10th, 93 degrees Fahrenheit and muggy in Lyons, PA.  Jenn's yard is full of shrubs, bushes, and deciduous trees.  Although we barely recorded it, we were so excited to see this Blue Jay.  After landing on the ground for a moment, it flew up to a nearby tree and ate some Spotted Lanternflies (an invasive species in the area).

Blue Jays are "easy" to identify around here because there aren't tons of blue colored birds of that size--almost a foot long.  They kind of remind me of a modified cardinal.  Blue Jays are distinguished by their blue crest and blue, white, and black bars on its wings and tail.  It is difficult to see in the video, but Blue Jays also have what looks like a black necklace that shows against its white belly.

We thought that the bird we continued to video was a female red-bellied woodpecker because we had watched a male climb up a nearby tree moments before.  Upon research, it seems that females also have a red nape, and this one definitely didn't.  So I think it is probably a juvenile.