On Tue, 20 Feb 1996, Jim Elder wrote:

> Yesterday I heard a Red-tailed Hawk screaming in the trees down the
> street from my house but when I located it, I found it was small,
> crested, and blue. In short it was a Jay doing a perfect imitation of a
> Red-tail. I presume it was a Steller's Jay but it was in silhouette so I
> suppose it could have been a Blue Jay. I found this interesting because
> where I grew up in Ohio it was very common for Blue Jays to imitate
> Red-tails but I have never heard a Steller's Jay do this. Do they do
> this commonly? Perhaps a large percentage of the "Red-tails" I hear are
> actually Steller's Jays.

I've heard them do that too, but never thought of it as a red-tail call.
In fact, at Field Springs Park south of Asotin, we heard a loud "scree"
and looked up to find three jays falling out of the trees onto the ground
near us. In later trips, we found that if you make a hawky-sounding
noise, they'll actually come out of the trees to come see you. By the
way, I mean Steller's Jays here (my editor won't let me correct my
previous sentences without a great deal of pain....).
Starlings do a good job at imitating hawk-cries too, but they sound too
tinny to be the real thing.
-Pat
scott931 at uidaho.edu