camp bird n esp CO Cf camp robber n
= Canada jay n.
1874 Chicago Tribune (IL) 4 Aug 8/3 CO, Another feathered curiosity peculiar to these parts is a bird of a light-gray color, about the size of a sparrowhawk, known as the camp-bird. Whenever a tent is pitched and cooking commences, the camp-birds flock about in great numbers, and strut up fearlessly within a few feet of the fire. Flesh is their principal diet, and it is amusing to see one lug off a piece of meat larger than himself. 1879 Chicago Tribune (IL) 4 Sept 9/3 CO, At Tin Cup I saw numbers of the camp-bird, or camp-robber, as it is often called. 1894 Miller Bird-Lover West 18 CO, Ask of almost any resident not an ornithologist if there are birds in Colorado, and he will shake his head. “Not many, I think,” he will probably say. “Camp birds and magpies. Oh yes, and larks. I think that ’s about all.” 1917 Wilson Bulletin 29.2.82, Perisoreus [canadensis].—I heard camp-bird . . in western Washington. 1928 Bailey Birds NM 470, Rocky Mountain Canada Jay: Perisoreus canadensis capitalis . . the big, fluffy, gray . . Camp Bird, belongs among the hemlocks and spruces of the Hudsonian Zone.