It was laying near the road, curled up, dead.
The strange part is that I know no cat or dog got it, and just a few hours earlier I am almost positive that it was this very bird that was near my window in the tree, singing.
It just up and died for no apparent reason.
Now I just hope I don’t get the bird/horse disease from it. I wasn’t even thinking of that when I picked it up. 
It’s a Blue Jay, Cran. Sadly when walking to work every morning especially during spring migration, I find migrating birds, warblers etc. that have flown into windows of buildings (sky scrappers) where the lights have been left on, laying on the sidewalk dead. Once I found one that was just stunned but really shaken, I put it in paper bag and took it to bird rescue station here in the city. It survived and was released a few days later.
The bird you found might have flown into a window or a moving car.
MarkB
That is a great photograpgh. I would hang that on the wall.It says alot.
Thanks. I actually had to position it around a lot, and somebody told me I was being gross, but I said, “At least I don’t pluck its feathers and cook it and call it food.”
It’s true.
I’d be worried about mites.
I already have them anyway. 
If you found it by the road, it was probably hit by a car.
Now I just hope I don’t get the bird/horse disease from it. I wasn’t even thinking of that when I picked it up. >
Those are transmitted by mosquitoes, Cran. Still, wash your hands–it’s always a good thing.
Mites are a likely consequence, but they’re not going to stay on you. Should your dwelling acquire a few, you’ll know it. They have very sharp little bites. Once they’ve had their meal, though, they’ll wander off.
Cranberry, you should sit those mites down and have a talk with them about the advantages of vegetarianism.
Best wishes,
Jerry
You should report it to the West Nile hotline. I’m not kiddin. Even if you’re not sure what killed it, they are taking reports. Not sure what the number is in West Virginny but we are supposed to be doing that here.
Never seen the true Eastern Blue Jay, what a cool-lookin bird.
They are lovely. We have Stellar Jays and Scrub Jays here, but I still have a soft spot for the Eastern Jay.
Yes, do contact the West Nile hotline, or your local agricultural extension.
Redwolf
They are great birds. They’ll interact with you to a considerable degree. Very good at defending their nests, too. They would stalk the cats as they prowled about our yard–all the cats were terrified of them.
My dad once fired up the grill upwind of a blue jay family in a grapefruit tree. Mom Jay was sitting on the eggs, coughing delicately. Dad Jay simply attacked my father, who realized there was a nest in the tree and quickly hauled the grill to a new location. The bird was unforgiving and proved to have a long memory.
For the rest of the nesting season, we had to wear helmets to play or work in the yard, even if we weren’t anywhere near the nest. After the babies fledged, things went back to normal. For a number of years, though, the bird renewed his attacks every spring. It was very sad when he finally passed on.
Actually, underneath all those beautiful feathers is a bottomless pit with no manners whatsoever, LOL!
They’ll empty a birdfeeder in no time, stuffing their loverly little throat pockets to the gills and do their darndest to keep everyone else away until they’ve had their fill (which is only when the feeder is totally empty), and they are expert cat and dog food thieves.
They also will divebomb you if you interefere with their dogfood bowl raiding. Really!
I love/hate them.
Our Stellars and Scrubs share the same personality but the blue crest is stunning. Here is a good site for lookin’ at birds by name or description.
http://www.percevia.com/explorer/db/birds_of_north_america_western/rl/_/0/attrs.aspx
The new-to-serious-Birding Weekender
They stopped taking dead birds for West Nile testing around here, since it is positively established. The bird was most likely hit by a car. Last summer we found a dead mockingbird at the end of the driveway. Gave it a nice burial under the pine trees. I picked it up with a shovel, though, cran…
By the way, in the last few years we’ve started vaccinating our horses against West Nile, as it has a really high mortality rate for them, much more so that for humans.
Robin
In case any of you East Coasters is curious…
This is a Stellar Jay (this site has it spelled wrong, but has a good picture):
http://babbitsgarden.snoville.com/Stellers.html
And this is a Western Scrub Jay:
http://birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Western_Scrub-Jay.html
Very similar to the Eastern Blue Jay (they’re relatives)
Redwolf
I was recently digging around on the Web for info on cowbirds, and ran across info that blue jays often eat the eggs, and even nestlings, of other birds (as will magpies, starlings, curlews, crows, grackles, ravens,gulls, vultures, various raptors, condors, toucans, and probably some others).
Opportunists of the first water. Handsome, but I wouldn’t want them around.
Actually, they’ve got the spelling right. It’s Steller’s Jay, at least in all my books.
(Cyanocitta stelleri: named after George Wilhelm Steller; I just knew all that bird nerdiness would pay off big one day!)
I like jays for their extraordinary intelligence and cleverness. But yeah, they sure can be pesky. I once saw a mother quail crossing the road with a load of babies trailing after; I think maybe two babies out of ten or so made it to the other side, the rest being picked off by a group of jays that had lain in wait. Fascinating and a little horrifying at the same time. . .
The cowbird, which we also have some of in our neck of the woods, has the habit of laying its eggs in another bird’s next, often disposing of any resident eggs, or even young chicks, to assure that their own wil be raised. This seemingly lazy, opportunistic, and barbaric practice is apparently hold over from the days when they followed the buffalo on migrations, for food, and couldn’t stay anywhere to raise their own. Interesting.
After I found that out, I didn’t dislike them nearly so much.
-Similar to Peggy’s experience: An eastern jay swooped down on my dad
as he mowed the lawn, leaving a wound on Dad’s bald noggin. Dad was nonplussed more than hurt.
-The Canadian jays/gray jays/whiskeyjacks in the Cascades here are easily tempted to hand feed, especially in winter. Their insatiable hunger overcomes their fear at the sight of a corn nut held up in offering. -Good to know when its time to gather ingredients for that Four-and-Twenty-Whiskeyjack pie.