Vol. 33 // The epic story of the California Condor’s comeback 📈

Found in western North America

Hear Their Calls

Meet the brilliant Steller’s (that’s Steller’s with an e, not a) Jay! (Sung to the famous Britney Spears tune:) ​​🎶 I’m not a Crow, not quite a Blue Jay. 🎶 

This large jay is prevalent on the western side of North America and has an emo mohawk and dark head that gives way to gorgeous hues of royal blue and teal from chest to tail feathers (and just a bit of dramatic blue coloring above their beaks). Their calls are a rattly cross between a screech and a craw, and they are a regular conifer and pine-oak forest visitor, quick to pick off your unattended food by the campfire. 

Steller’s Jays are great imitators, reciting the calls of other birds as well as mechanical sounds like chainsaws. They make their nests high up in trees, built by both parents with collected mud, twigs, pine needles, and more. These birds love large seeds and are likely to come to your backyard bird feeder if there are peanuts for the taking.

Fun fact: Steller's and Blue Jays are the only North American Jays with crests. 

Give a Hoot

Birding bits you should know about this week

📈 Check this out
Flight of the Condor
Scroll through this interactive video essay, complete with the soothing sounds of the coast, about the grand return of the California Condor to Northern California, an effort spearheaded by the elders of the native Yurok people on the Tribal Park Taskforce.

👁️ Learn
How wifi binoculars could help make birding more accessible
Technology is making it easier for disabled people to interact with nature.

🪩 Laugh
Bumpin’ birds
Have you ever gone this hard at the club?

Order Flying Colors’ premium organic bird food today and you’ll get $10 off your order of any Carton! This special price is available for Flyer subscribers only! 

Follow this link and use code FALL at checkout. You can choose from our beautiful cartons or jars, filled with three custom blends — Pine Plains, Woodstock, and Millbrook — all made with 100% USDA certified organic ingredients and hand-mixed with love in New York's Hudson Valley. Offer valid through October 16, 2022.

Your Shot

An amazing bird photo taken by one of our community members. Submit yours to hello@flyingcolors.co to be considered for an upcoming edition!

The wild duck startles like a sudden thought,

And heron slow as if it might be caught.

The flopping crows on weary wings go by

And grey beard jackdaws noising as they fly.

The crowds of starnels whizz and hurry by,

And darken like a clod the evening sky.

– “Autumn Birds” by John Clare

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About Us

Flying Colors makes premium organic wild bird food, offering ethically sourced, toxin-free seeds and nuts of the highest quality to nourish wild birds of all types and inspire birders of all ages. Each specialty blend and single origin creation is rigorously sourced & researched, and every jar is produced with love & packaged by hand in small batches in New York's Hudson Valley and tested in our own backyards.