BIRD: So, what was blue-colored blue bird in Friday’s column?

We talked to readers with two similar answers, and we’re not sure which one is correct, or even if either is correct.

Both believe it is a type of jay that is native to the west that ended up here due to fire or heat in its native area.

Sara and Hawkeye Whitney of Bradford suggested it’s a scrub jay, while Sally Corey of Port Allegany suggested it’s a steller’s jay.

Information from the Whitneys’ bird book states that scrub jays are crestless with a white throat outlined in blue, a blue crown and an olive-gray back; conversely, steller’s jays have dark crests.

Sally, a lifelong birdwatcher, explained steller’s jay are “indigenous to the far west of the country,” populating the Pacific Coast “from top to bottom.”

She guessed the bird got off course from “the storms and high winds and tornadoes that they’ve been having around there.” Or, “he may be a young bird who got really confused.”

For her part, Sara said she and Hawkeye will refer to the paperback Audubon book they keep in their car when they discover a bird they are not familiar with while they are out.

Sara, who also feeds hummingbirds, noted that, years ago, she and her husband would sometimes see little hummingbirds that were from the western part of the country that would come east when the weather would get too hot for them.

She explained that Hawkeye had lived in California for a while, and when there would be large fires out west, it wasn’t unusual for birds who couldn’t get away to die or even burn up.

We looked up more photos of different jays online. Boy, we didn’t realize how many types of jays there are. They’re beautiful colors, too: all different blues, grays, greens and browns.