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I always took it to mean a baby bluejay.When freshly hatched they have no feathers soooo,,,,hence the expression.I always liked the expression"Like a duck on a junebug"too.Ponder that one .
Baby jaybirds are especially featherless. Anyway, the "Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Vol. II, H-O" by J.E. Lighter (Random House, New York, 1997) says: "naked as a jaybird, stark naked." It lists as a couple of citations: 1893 James "Mavrick" 27: He will have the humbug qualifications of cow-boy stripped from his poor worthless carcass so quickly that he would feel like a jay bird with his tail feathers gone. 1922 in DARE: I gwi' strip nakit ez a jaybu'd befo' 'e fedduh' grow! Phrase was earlier "naked as a robin" (1879).
Jaybird - common jay of eastern North America; bright blue with grey breast. (bluejay)
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