This gray jay researcher is pumped about the hardy feathered hoser being named Canada's national bird

It doesn’t just survive but thrives in the cold Canadian winter. It’s friendly and smart.

The gray jay has surprised some as the choice for the country’s national bird but not Ryan Norris, an associate professor and research chair in the department of integrative biology at the University of Guelph.

“I think it’s a fantastic choice,” Norris, who has studied the gray jay for many years, told Yahoo Canada News.

“I like the gray jay because it toughs it out in Canada and we tough it out in a lot of places, too. What better bird to pick as our national bird?”

Norris is an ecologist who studies the behaviour, population dynamics, conservation, and evolution of animals in seasonal environments, with an emphasis on migratory birds and butterflies. He and his graduate students have been working with former Algonquin Park chief naturalist Dan Strickland to study the gray jay population there.

In recent decades, the population in Algonquin Park, some of the gray jay’s southernmost range, has declined by more than half.

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society has recommended the gray jay as the national bird, to join the beaver and the maple tree as official symbols of the nation. The society hopes the federal government will table a bill recognizing the gray jay in time for the country’s 150^th anniversary next year.

“The gray jay is truly Canada’s bird with traits that symbolize the Canadian spirit,” the society said in a statement announcing the choice.

In true Canadian fashion, the year-and-a-half long national bird project involved a poll of the public and an official debate by ornithologists. There was consultation with cultural experts and Indigenous peoples.

More than 50,000 Canadians weighed in.

“Canadians’ overwhelming interest in choosing a national bird really impressed us,” Aaron Kylie, Canadian Geographic’s editor, said in a statement.

The list of feathered contenders was narrowed to five: the common loon, the black-capped chickadee, the snowy owl, the Canada goose and the gray jay.

Some have called foul, pointing out that the loon and the snowy owl both polled higher than the diminutive, some might say dowdy, jay.

But the hard-working hoser of the bird world came out the winner, not for flashy feathers or a sexy song but due to its hardiness. The gray jay, also known as the Canada jay or the whiskey jack, is found in every province and territory.

The common loon, snowy owl and black-capped chickadee are also already official provincial symbols.

“In terms of representing the qualities we like to think of in ourselves as Canadians, the gray jay is highly intelligent; it’s able to endure harsh winters; it’s extremely friendly. It’s one of the few birds that will come to your hand and feed from your hand,” Norris said.

They are resident in Canada year-round. Unlike loons and seniors, they do not flock to Florida when the snow starts to fly.

They cache food beginning in August and September that they rely on to get them through the winter, recalling six or even seven months later where they’ve stashed the cache.

Perhaps their most amazing feat, is that like Canadians, they breed in winter.

“They start building nests in the deep snow, in February,” Norris said.

Females lay eggs in early March.

“They’re often sitting on nests during snowstorms. That’s not unusual,” he said. “They’re very hardy birds. They’re not just surviving the Canadian winter.”

Gray jays are found in the boreal forest across the country and, like many species, are subject to a changing climate, Norris said.

“They don’t cache seeds, they cache meat and berries and insects and to properly preserve that food, they need the trees to act as a freezer,” he said.

A warming climate means a greater risk that food will spoil before the winter freeze.

“When that food goes rotten, that means there’s less food not only to survive the winter but for breeding.”