Research shows that the birds will remember all of the hiding places or nearly so, enough anyway to impress someone who constantly is looking for his phone. I put a dozen peanuts out each morning, and rattle them in the container as a signal.
What do Blue Jays do with shelled peanuts?
Often Blue Jays will “swallow” one and take another in their bill. They fly up to a tree branch or favorite perch and peck the shells open, eating or storing the nuts. Downy Woodpeckers and chickadees will peck open the shell while the peanut is still in the feeder and extract one nut.
Are Blue Jays smart?
Blue Jays are one of the smartest birds you’ll see visiting your feeder. They are members of the bird family corvid, which includes other jay species such as Steller’s Jays, along with ravens and crows. Scientific research has uncovered fascinating details about the human-like intelligence traits corvids possess.
What are Blue Jays afraid of?
A single fake owl, a few convincing rubber snakes, or something similar can scare blue jays away.
Why do Blue Jays select certain peanuts?
They want the biggest reward first, so they’re picking up each peanut, looking for the heaviest one. Once they have a heavy peanut in the beak, they fly off to consume it or hide it for a later snack. Then they return to find the next heaviest nut, and so on. Blue jays can clear out a pile of peanuts very quickly.
How do Blue Jays know when peanuts are out?
By using specialized slow motion cameras, researchers showed that those snappy head movements are actually a way for the birds to get a tactile feel for the the nut’s weight and listen to the sound the peanuts makes as it rattles in its shell.
Is it good to have Blue Jays in your yard?
By caching nuts in the ground, blue jays helped spread these nut-bearing trees northward at the end of the Ice Age. This act clearly benefited numerous species of wildlife. Today, blue jays continue to move oaks around, linking stand to stand. As backyard birds go, blue jays are highly intelligent and resourceful.
Do Blue Jays remember people?
Ravens and other members of the corvid family (crows, jays, and magpies) are known to be intelligent. They can remember individual human faces, expertly navigate human environments (like trash cans), and they even hold funerals for their dead.
Can Blue Jays bond with humans?
Studies show Blue Jays remember human faces, and if the birds take an interest in you, they might follow you around. But, unfortunately, we feel like the jays are always sizing us up and deciding if they can trust us. If playback doesn’t begin shortly, try restarting your device.
What is the lifespan of a blue jay?
Their average life span is two to four years in the wild, but up to nine years in captivity.
Do blue jays eat squirrels?
They’ll steal feed from squirrels, nuthatches, and woodpeckers, but it is a rather uncommon occurrence. Blue jays are opportunistic. A majority of their diet consists of acorns, nuts, seeds, grains, and fruits. Insects become an important part of their diet during the breeding season.
Do blue jays eat hummingbirds?
Blue Jays, Crows, Roadrunners, Chipmunks, and Squirrels are notorious for eating hummingbird eggs and baby hummingbirds as a nice little treat. Hawks have been known to catch a hummingbird for a quick snack. Fish, frogs, snakes, and lizards have been known to snatch up a low flying hummingbird for a nice meal.
What does it mean when blue jays squawk?
It’s right in the middle of hawk migration, too, so they’re all squawking their heads off about new food discoveries, predators, greeting relatives and old neighbors, and they’re no longer concerned about predators finding their nests. Find more photos, sounds, video, and text on our Blue Jay page.
How Far Can Blue Jays smell peanuts?
Jays seem to sense whenever peanuts are put out within a 5-mile radius. You won’t see them in your yard for months or years, but as soon as you offer peanuts in a shell, they can appear within days or even hours!
Do Blue Jays store nuts for the winter?
Many jays, including the Blue Jay, store food for sustenance in harsher seasons. Over a few months, an individual bird may cache nuts, insects, even worms, in several thousand spots. And relocate nearly all of them as needed.
Do birds prefer shelled or unshelled peanuts?
Whole, in-shell nuts are ideal for larger birds such as jays, crows, grackles, and larger woodpeckers. Smaller birds such as chickadees and titmice will prefer peanut hearts or chips that are already broken up. These small pieces are easier for their smaller bills.
Why do Blue Jays shake peanuts?
Peanuts in the shell are a favorite among Blue Jays. Watch your feeder to see if you can observe them shaking peanuts to tell if the shell is full or empty.
Can you feed Blue Jays bread?
Please don’t give wild birds bread, crackers or other human snack foods. Bread has zero nutrition for wild birds. In fact, bread, crackers, chips and other human snacks are, in some ways, WORSE than feeding birds absolutely nothing.
Do blue jays keep squirrels away?
There are reports of blue jays chasing away smaller species from bird feeders and bird baths. They do not back down from a fight and might even form a mob to attack smaller animals like squirrels. They are fierce defenders, to say the least.
What is a blue jays favorite food?
Blue Jays’ Favorite Foods
Peanuts in any form—whole, shelled, or even peanut butter—are their favorites at backyard feeders. Putting out a handful of nuts is sure to invite a loud, raucous jay squabble over the tasty tidbits. One bird may even take several nuts at once, quickly flying off to hide his bounty.
Do blue jays nest in the same place every year?
Do Blue Jays nest in the same place every year? It is more common that a pair of jays will build a new nest each breeding season. However, blue jays do occasionally reuse old nests. They may do so for multiple years in a row – if the nest is in a secure and convenient location.