Biden struggles to set up beach chair in Malibu during first Fourth of July weekend since leaving office

Blue Jays are my favorite birds, followed by Crows.

I agree. Their behavior patterns are fascinating. I love their vocalizations. I have to run, but will comment later if that is okay.

🤡

He just got off the phone with Leonid Brezhnev.

EC

I was interested in your post because I am a huge fan of Corvids such as Crows, Ravens, and Blue Jays. I watch them. And I enjoy that, because they are always watching us. Always!

I was walking into work some years back, and there was a solitary crow sitting on a parking lot lamp. As I approached it watched me closely, and I walked slower as it inclined its head until I disappeared directly under the light it was standing on.

With a deft little effortless hop into the air, it rotated its entire body 180 degrees so it was facing the other direction and could see me.

There was something so..minimalist about that little hop, just so it could keep its eyes on me.

I think in general, birds are curious about us. I smoke a pipe occasionally when I lay in my hammock, and the birds change their behavior. They fly back and forth all the time, but when I am smoking the pipe, they fly very low and buzz me, flying between the wooden structure and the hammock, and I can hear the beating of their wings! They land on the structure, and eyeball me between the grape vines I have growing on it, it is really interesting. Something about the pipe interests them, I think.

But of all the birds, Crows and Blue Jays seem to have a peculiar interest in humans.

I just retired, and one of my “retirement goals” is to get a Blue Jay to eat out of my hand. I don’t have high expectations about that, though, but I have seen someone do it.

Because I had at least two or three scolds (love that name for a group of Blue Jays-”scolds”) I got a lot of exposure to observing Blue Jays.

When I went to work each day, I had put up a bird feeder in an area right outside my window that had a lot of vegetation, and for the last 10 years or so I would fill the feeder and open the window (that I removed the screen from) so that they could fly up to my window where I could interact with them (and a lot of other birds as well)

I lined up peanuts in the shell on the window sill and the Blue Jays would fly over. I got an appreciation for just how powerful and skilled flyers Blue Jays are.

When I came into work (about 06:30 AM every morning-I was usually the first one there) and raised my blinds, I would often see 10-15 Blue Jays sitting in the trees (which were maybe 30 feet away) just looking expectantly at me.

I kept the peanuts in an old cylindrical Quaker Oats container. When I brought the container into view, they recognized it, and some of the Blue Jays would start getting a little twitchy, hopping around from branch to branch.

Some of them would change the angle of their crest, while others would just change the position of their head, jerking it smarty to one side to to view me and the peanuts with only one eye...others, hilariously bobbing their heads syncopatedly up and down in anticipation.

Oddly, as I would perform this “Peanut” ritual, these famously noisy birds rarely uttered a sound. As I was thinking of this ritual, this suddenly occurred to me for the first time. Very little noise.

They were waiting for “The Bald Man in the White Lab Coat” to fill the feeder and put out the peanuts. But mostly put out the peanuts.

That is something I found out about Blue Jays-they will eat a lot of things (Omnivores, like most Corvids) but the food they covet above all others seems to be...peanuts in the shell.

It is irresistible to them.

As I opened up that Quaker Oats Cask of peanuts, each individual Blue Jay would go to full alert with their body posture.

Then, I would search for the largest peanut available (as a prize to the bold) and would throw it into an area that all the birds would see it. Doing that, I saw what the pecking order would be. Most of the time, there was NO competition at the TOP of the pecking order.

All the birds didn’t even move and one bird would fly down unopposed to get the giant peanut. But when the second one came down, often there would be multiple Blue Jays making a grab, and as each successive peanut was thrown, the numbers of Blue Jays vying for that peanut would increase.

But it did reach a point where the numbers of Blue Jays swooping in began to decline, because as each bird would get its peanut, it would immediately fly away with its booty, a fat peanut held in its beak, to perch somewhere and break the peanut open.

It was how I counted each day how many were in attendance for the Peanut Ritual. I would count the peanuts I threw out, and when they stopped getting picked up, you had your number.

I loved watching them, clutching the peanut in one talon, pinioning the shell to the branch they were perched on, and their powerful necks and shoulders jamming their beaks repeatedly into the relatively soft peanut shells.

As an aside, I believe that is why Blue Jays so love peanuts in the shell. They love acorns. But acorns are a lot more difficult to break open. And I’ll bet peanuts taste better to them than acorns. So it is probably fun to them to break through that peanut shell so easily, what is inside is tastier than an acorn to them, I’ll wager.

Then, as soon as they get the peanuts into their gullet, they fly right back over to get another peanut. I throw them individually (not a handful at a time) and an interesting exercise is to throw two peanuts to a lone Blue Jay that are almost the exact same size. It needs to be a lone Blue Jay, because the purpose of the exercise was to see how they choose. If one is even a little bigger than the other, the bird will choose it every single time.

But if they are nearly the same size, it throws them into a hilarious choice algorithm in their brain.

They will go to one, pick it up, spit it out, and go to the other one and pick it up. Sometimes, that is enough. They can tell it is a bit heavier and they make their choice, spitting it out and picking up the first one, or simply flying off with the second peanut.

But if they can’t choose, it is a riot. I have watched a Blue Jay go back and forth between two nearly indistinguishable peanuts up to five times before flying off!

You know what it is? It is absolute greed! I know I shouldn’t anthropomorphize them, but I can’t find a good alternate explanation! What is also funny is to see them try to get a peanut still in the shell down their gullet so they can grab the other one with their beak, but...they just can’t force a peanut in the shell down. Even a small peanut in the shell is still too big.

But boy, do they try. I particularly enjoyed seeing one try repeatedly and failing, simply impale the second one with its beak before flying away with both of them!

Love Blue Jays, just love them!

Hi
Blue jays have a great sense of humor. At least when it comes to teasing, playing around. One kept watch for my Dad’s kitty Kat to go to sleep on the warm driveway each day. The bird would thrn sneak up on the cat and squeak loudly to awaken her. Eventually, though, kitty got even. She only pretended to sleep one day. And when the trickster bird came close, well, that was the end of all the humor.
We get lots of crows. Very very intelligent critters! They eat almost anything. They love hard boiled eggs and hot dogs. Bread, preferably all grain. And yes, peanuts — we buy five pound sacks for about $20, shelled. One crow is a real pig and eill hop from spot up spit scarfing all the peanuts up. So we have to watch for even that crow isn’t around to toss more peanuts for the hummingbirds and squirrels. The crows know how to wake me up if I sleep past their breakfast time — ba gong on the roof above my bedroom. Ha!

You’re probably familiar with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGYII1XbE4U&pp=ygUdY3JvdyBpbnRlbGxpZ2VuY2UgZG9jdW1lbnRhcnk%3D