Visiting Phoenix, Arizona, again.

I don't know what kind of bird this is here.
It looks like a jay of some kind. Entirely dark.
The funny jay gait.
And you should hear it calling!
It's the kind of sound that makes you straighten up and look around.

High, piercingly clear, really a whistle.
And the jays, when they talk at each other (they are often in groups),
have all different pitches and notes that each whistles,
and some of them have little ornaments, grace notes, sliding from one note to the next.

The funniest thing I ever hear from these jays
is the sunset, the crepuscular soundoff.

For this one, they all clump together in the branches of trees
(one tree, if it's big enough for the whole group)
and deep behind its green leaves,
they all whistle at once.
I mean, it is the darndest sound.
They sound like they're all high on the same drug.