Erie, PA—A recent discovery has shown that Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata), common backyard
birds in the eastern United States, spend their nights hanging upside-down from
perches, similar to bats. This ground-breaking finding was made recently by the
three young women who run the Audubon banding station in Presque Isle State
Park, located in Erie, Pennsylvania.
It was Assistant Bird Bander Amy
Gondran who first realized something was unusual. “We’ve banded a lot of Blue
Jays, but this one was weird. I put the band on, and took all the required measurements:
measuring the wing, taking a weight, determining amount of fat deposits, aging
and sexing the individual, looking for ticks. Then, when I was done, it just
hung by its feet from my finger, dangling head-first.”
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| Assistant Bird Bander Amy Gondran with the Blue Jay hanging from her finger |
Head Bander Mattie VandenBoom was
mystified by the odd behavior. “It [the Blue Jay] hung there for quite a few
mintues, in a trance. I took a picture with my phone so we would have proof
that it actually happened,” she says. “In all my 10 years of banding
experience, I’ve never seen behaviors like this in a wild bird.”
Adds Lauren Smith, Associate Bander
of Birds, “It hung there by its feet for like two minutes, and it closed its
eyes at one point, so we figured it was sleeping.”
“We believe it was probably
slightly stressed from being caught in our mist net and then having been
handled during the banding process, which made it tired,” says Gondran.
After
the birds are removed from the mist nets, they are placed in cloth bags and
transported to the banding area, where they are processed. “Our hypothesis is
that the dark bag calmed the Blue Jay down, which caused it to fall asleep once
the banding process was complete,” says Gondran.
During the spring migration earlier
this year the women banded approximately 60 Blue Jays, but had not noticed any
unique behaviors. “We have had other Blue Jays rest on our hands for a few
moments before flying away [after the banding process], but this was definitely
a unique behavior,” says VandenBoom.
This
discovery seriously alters the way scientists think about Blue Jays, says
Smith. “Before, we just assumed that they all huddled on a branch at night.
This completely changes everything we know about their social structure and
basic behavioral ecology.”
Other birds do hang upside down, including
black-capped chickadees, which can be quite acrobatic in their foraging [see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P87zzgHhKBE and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l05MU2tQO4&feature=watch_response], and male oropendolas, tropical birds which will fall forward head-first off a branch,
wings open, in order to attract a mate [see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HjNZ1a0PTY&NR=1 ]. However, no bird species have ever been
observed roosting in this hanging position.
The discovery is currently under
review for publication in the scientific journal Nature. “Our sample size is one, but we have
photographic evidence, so I don’t see how anyone could doubt our findings,”
says Gondran.
Further studies are already
underway, and the banders are working on a book about their discovery, tentatively
titled “The Bird Who Hung by His Feet.”
Film rights have already been purchased by 20th Century Fox, with Kristen
Stewart, Anne Hathaway, and Drew Barrymore reportedly signed as the leads.
On a related note, the banding team
may or may not have also discovered the only remaining population of
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the world. “It was crazy, the Ivory-bill was flying
around in this mixed-species flock, with a Bachman’s Warbler, a couple Passenger
Pigeons, and a Carolina Parakeet,” says Smith. “Amy left her camera at home
that day, but we’re confident that we’ll soon have photographic evidence to
confirm our newest discovery for the ornithological community.”
“Apparently all the species have
modified their behaviors in order to survive the rigors of the modern world
together,” says VandenBoom. Research is
in progress to support this claim, but the results “look positive” for these
species.
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