Photo and Commentary ©2023 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
If you’ve ever attended an auction you can imagine what a flock of Brown Jays sounds like early in the morning. Then, just as you were seriously considering buying a 410, they suddenly stop calling and slip away to only places they know about. In this way they are not unlike many of our other jays, but are much larger. Having only entered the United States in the 1970s, they still have a very limited range along the Rio Grande and sometimes appear not to be present in the U.S. at all. Further south into Mexico and Central America they can be very common and conspicuous.
Their family life is a complex one which one writer compared to a family-run daycare center with each member pitching in. Generally each flock has only a single nest made by a pair or several adults into which one or more females may lay eggs. Sometimes offspring from a previous season will assist in feeding the chicks, but if these helpers return with food it generally is passed on to one of the parent birds to feed to the chicks. Most chicks remain with their family of origin for a year or two before breaking away to begin their own family units.
Family groups are as varied among Homo sapiens as they are in the rest of the animal kingdom. Consider the assorted arrangements mentioned in the Bible. The first, and undoubtedly the ideal, is the standard nuclear family with one husband and one wife exemplified by Adam and Eve. The polygamous marriage was followed by many of the leading patriarchs in the Old Testament. Another provision was made by God for a woman whose husband died without leaving her an heir. This was known as a Levirate marriage where the brother-in-law of the deceased was to marry the widow and provide her with an offspring in the name of the original husband. Accommodations were also made for concubines, slaves, and female prisoners of war. If one believes in a God who really loves us and wants the best for us, one has to be impressed with how far this God is willing to go to meet fallen humanity where we are. Such love can hardly be imagined, whatever kind of family we belong to.