Blue Jay Bird why is it naked as a jay bird not blue jay or crow or some other bird they are all naked if you think about it?

by thefixer

Question by qanda11: why is it naked as a jay bird not blue jay or crow or some other bird they are all naked if you think about it?
and why a bird at all why not some other animal or even naked as a caveman or something why even an animal at all?

Best answer:

Answer by Sicilian Godmother
You definitely have a valid point and piqued my curiosity. I did some research and found some interesting information on this topic at a website called…www.word-detective.com
Anyway, rather than cull the salient points here is a copy and paste. I am sure you will find it an interesting read.
Dear Word Detective: Can you please explain “naked as a jaybird”? We have many blue jays where I live, but all of them are covered with feathers. Am I missing something? Do all their feathers fall off at some point? — M. Mercurio, via the internet.

Not that I’m aware of, though I suppose it’s not impossible. My dogs, after all, shed enough hair every summer to build a whole new dog. Maybe blue jays shed their feathers when they fly to Florida for the winter. It’s probably hard to get a decent tan when you’re covered with feathers.

The phrase “naked as a jay bird” means, of course, to be utterly without clothing. A “jay” is a species of songbird, probably most familiar to us as the blue jay, with its brilliant blue plumage and distinctively raucous call.

Just where the phrase “naked as a jaybird” came from is, however, a mystery. It has been in fairly common usage since the middle of the 20th century, and seems to be American in origin. Why blue jays, which are modestly covered with feathers, should have become symbols of stark nudity is anyone’s guess. The English have a similar phrase, “naked as a robin,” but that doesn’t seem to make any sense either.

I suppose it is possible that “naked as a jaybird” is related somehow to the use of “jay” in the 19th century for a hick or rube recently arrived in the city. This “jay” underlies our term “jaywalk,” meaning to cross the street in the middle of the block or in some other unorthodox fashion, supposedly as one unaccustomed to urban traffic rules might.

In any case, since we’re reduced to guessing, here’s mine. There are few birds more blatantly obvious than the male blue jay. Not only is Mr. Jay bright blue, not a common color for animals of any ilk, but he is also usually the loudest and most obnoxious bird in any given tree. As a symbol of that which is flamboyantly obvious, the blue jay takes the cake. “Naked as a jaybird,” therefore, might just be a colorful way of saying “blatantly and obviously completely naked.”

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Tags:about, bird, Blue, crow, naked, some, they, think