Blue Jay Feather Symbolism: Here’s What It Means


When out on a walk, you found a beautiful blue jay feather. This article will delve into blue jay feather symbolism so you know what your new find means!

What does finding a blue jay feather mean? Finding a blue jay feather is associated with wisdom, faithfulness, and self-healing, but above all, good fortune and success. However, in some instances, the feather can have negative connotations, such as another’s bad intentions and/or jealousy towards you.

This guide to blue jay feather symbolism will unpack the meaning of this blue feather both positive and negative. I’ll also talk about what blue jay feathers look like so you can be sure that’s what you have! 

Let’s get started. 

The Symbolism of Blue Jay Feathers: Positive Meanings

First, I must say that although the blue jay feather does have some negative associations, it’s widely regarded to be a positive event should you find one of these alluring blue feathers.

Per the intro, let’s go through and discuss the multitude of positive qualities a blue jay feather represents.


Good Fortune/Luck

Were you out on your daily walk around the neighborhood and you just so happened to pick up a blue jay feather? Good things may be on the way to you.

In Native American tribes, the blue jay has always been associated with good fortune and positive luck. 

Tribespeople would often crush blue jay feathers and then use them as an ingredient in body paint. In doing so, the Native Americans thought they were increasing their chances of victory. 

Roman-Greek culture also connects the blue jay feather with good luck. 

The blue jay is greatly revered in this culture since the bird acted as a messenger that transmitted messages from God to the Roman-Greek people.

Thus, finding a blue jay feather, especially on your home’s chimney, is a sign that good fortune will soon be yours according to this culture. 

Success

Have you been forging your own path lately but you’re not sure if you should stick with it? If you then find a blue jay feather, that’s your sign to keep doing what you’re doing. 

Blue jay feathers are often associated with success and potential. When you combine that with the blue jay feather’s primary meaning of good fortune and luck, you can see why people are usually so happy to find one!  

Wisdom

We all feel stuck in life from time to time. Should you change your career? Maybe you should move to a new city?

In the days of the Native Americans, whenever they felt stuck for an answer, they looked to the skies. 

Much as is the case in Roman-Greek culture, the Native Americans believed that blue jays acted as messenger birds.

The bird’s connotations of wisdom meant that spotting the bird was often an encouraging symbol when pondering one’s life decisions. Finding a blue jay feather is held in the same regard. 

Faithfulness

In many cultures, the blue jay is believed to be among the most loyal birds, likely due to its association as a messenger bird from God.

Finding a blue jay feather if you’re in a serious relationship or married is often taken as a manifestation of faithfulness. 

If you’re with your spouse or partner when you come across the blue jay feather, many believe this symbolizes the strength of your marriage.

Perhaps you feel like your marriage or relationship isn’t as rock-solid as it can be. Then maybe coming across the blue jay feather is a sign to prioritize your bond and strengthen it! 

Healing

Another major positive symbol of the blue jay feather is healing. 

Finding the feather of a blue jay also represents the need for self-healing.

For instance, maybe you haven’t realized that you’ve been holding onto a grudge.

Holding onto anger has been medically proven to increase your own feelings of anger and thus negatively impact your mental and physical health. 

Once you let go of all that anger, you’ll feel less tense, stressed, and upset. You can breathe and forge a new chapter in your life, which is always exciting!

Besides self-healing, a blue jay feather can also represent your healing gifts as they apply to others. The blue jay’s feather, as I stated above, can be a sign to work on the relationships in your life, especially those that you might have neglected. 

The Symbolism of Blue Jay Feathers: Negative Meanings 

Coming across a blue jay feather is sort of like cracking open an egg and getting a double yolk. The overwhelming meaning is positive, but there are negative connotations as well. 

Let’s explore how the various cultures perceive blue jay feathers through a negative lens. 

Deception/Cheating

The blue jay is one of the more intelligent birds, enough so that it can learn the sounds that other birds make (such as hawks) and then replicate those sounds with expert precision.

It’s an impressive skill, but in some cultures like Celtic culture, it was not lost on these people that the blue jay can be rather deceitful.

For an example, in Celtic culture, it’s believed that finding a blue jay feather is not good at all and often meant that someone in your life might be deceiving you. 

Others who follow this same line of thinking go a step further and link the bird with cheating. 

Whether that means your partner in your romantic relationship is cheating on you, you’re being cheated out of a promotion at work, or you’re being cheated in a personal deal, you have to connect the dots. 

If you ascribe to the Celtics’ view of blue jay feathers and you stumble upon one, take heed. You should be wary of those in your life for at least the next little while.

Jealousy

When you experience life’s successes, you can usually rely on your family to have your back. But what if you can’t? A blue jay feather may be able to tell you more.

Despite the respect that Native Americans have for blue jay feathers, the culture also wasn’t blind to the fact that finding the feathers wasn’t always a good thing.

For example, if a blue jay feather was found in your house, that was usually symbolic of jealousy in the family. 

If you have poor familial relations, then you probably had an inkling of your family member’s true intentions before you picked up the feather. A blue jay feather in your home is just the icing on the cake.

Keep in mind that it’s only when a blue jay feather finds its way in your home that it symbolizes jealousy, at least according to Native American culture. 

Gossip

Do you ever feel like people are talking behind your back?

According to at least one symbol attributed with stumbling upon a blue jay feather, it may not just be a feeling, rather a premonition confirmed by your newly found blue jay feather.

One of the more negative meanings of blue jay feathers is that others are indeed gossiping about your behavior.

Namely, these people believe that you’re being pushy or too blunt. You could even be acting like a bully.

Although this symbolism of blue jay feathers isn’t tied to any particular culture, it seems to originate from the traits of this bird. 

The blue jay is a rather competitive and go-getting creature that can sometimes even be perceived as aggressive.

In this context, it might not be a bad idea to check your behavior before you damage relationships with friends, family, or colleagues! The gossip should soon stop. 

Identifying a Blue Jay Feather: How to Be Sure

Blue jays are far from the only blue-hued birds in the sky. There are several kinds of bluebirds as well, so how do you know that the feather you have in your hand does indeed belong to a blue jay? 

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory showcases what a blue jay feather can look like. Here are some identifying factors.

White Tip

As you can see per the images in the link above, blue jay feathers usually have a white patch at the tip of the feather. 

Smaller feathers under 12 centimeters in length will feature a large white blotch at the top whereas larger feathers that are closer to 14 centimeters in length may have no white at all. 

Even a strip of white at the top of the feather is possible depending on the bird’s age and which part of its body the feathers fell from. 

Blueish-Gray Tint

No matter the size of the blue jay feather you picked up, it should have a trademark color. 

This isn’t a vibrant blue, and the colors are for camouflage as much as for attracting mates.

Rather, the blue of a blue jay’s feather is a blueish-gray color. The feathers are undeniably blue, but a more muted shade.

Besides the grayish tint, some blue jay feathers might also have patches of brown near the opposite side of the tip. 

Dark Horizontal Stripes

The presence of stripes on a blue jay feather is very much commensurate with the size of the feather. 

The smallest feathers–which also happen to feature the largest white patches–might have very faint horizontal stripes or none. If any stripes are present, they’ll be very thin.

Larger blue jay feathers over 12 centimeters will have increasingly more stripes. The thickness and color don’t increase, per se. That color will always be dark brown or back.

Mid-sized to larger blue jay feathers will feature a row of horizontal stripes, but usually only on one side of the feather. 

If a feather has no white tip and horizontal stripes on both sides, and if you measure it and it’s nearly 14 centimeters, this is still a blue jay feather. 

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