Do Blue Jays Trade Goodies ?

I feed peanuts in the shell to a couple blue jays in a little dish every morning. This morning, much to my surprise, there were two pieces of cubed bread in the dish ! I am on the fifth floor of an apartment building, and my bird feeders are on my balcony. No one can get to the feeders except us.

Do you think the jay brought a trade - or a present ?

We have scrub jays here and yes, they will drop what they are carrying in an instant if there is something better offered. They are very smart birds and interesting to watch if you have the time. When offered just a few peanuts and they are not pressed for safety reasons, they will pick up and drop each one before settling on the heaviest. I believe your eastern blue jays are just as smart.

I bet someone in your immediate area is offering bread cubes to the birds...

My guess, it had just picked up the bread somewhere else, then saw the peanuts, and thought, "hey, that's better than this junk, I'll just dump this cr@p and pick up some peanuts instead".

Good reason, too, peanuts are much more nutritious than bread.

Resin

Thanks ! Good to know I am giving the jays what they need and want ! They are so beautiful. I love watching them. I have their little feeder up and away from the others, and these jays don't even hassle the other birds. When they first started coming, they made that hawk sound to scare the little birds below. Now, they must feel safe, because they don't make any noise. They just come and take the peanuts away.



This message was edited Nov 27, 2008 4:25 PM

who was it that had a bottle cap left in their feeder? Grasmussen?

I used to have a Blue Jay that would hang on our screen door asking for peanuts. I would put them down on the doormat and he would pick up each one and when he found the heaviest one, would fly off with it. I guess I was in a devilish mood, because I went to the trouble one day of opening a few peanuts, taking out the nuts and glueing them back together. Next time he came around I put all the glued peanuts out for him. Boy, you could almost see him getting madder and madder with every peanut he picked up. Oh, after I enjoyed the show I did give him his full peanuts and he was happy.

ROFL, GP

One day I didn't take the peanuts out of the clear plastic bag; I just set the bag out on the patio. Of course they freaked out and started tearing the bag apart so I ended the experiment early. Now I have trained one of the birds (named Heckle) to come into the kitchen through the patio door to get his peanuts. I stand just a couple of feet away and shake my finger at him and talk to him as he tests the nuts so he isn't afraid of me or my voice. In fact I can now call them into my yard when they are out in other areas of the neighborhood; they recognize my voice.

Heckle has always had this sidekick I named Jeckle but he never got as brave as Heckle. But he would attack Heck when he was out in the garden hiding his nuts. Sometimes I would observe Heck digging up his nuts and moving them when he thought Jeckle would get them. I somewhat appeased Jeckle by teaching him to expect his own peanuts delivered up on the roof. So now he sits patiently on the TV antenna waiting for me to toss his peanuts up there. He actually caught one in midair one time!

I started watching these birds more closely after reading a study of scrub jays published in the journal Science. It was a fascinating read!

What wonderful birds ! Your stories are great !

GP, you have way to much time on your hands!! LOL

Pardalinum, that sounds so cool! something like that takes a big invest on your part.

Here is a picture of Heckle checking out the bag of peanuts. Heckle was a youngster when he first started coming for peanuts. That is why he was easy to train. Fortunately he is not so tame he doesn't know how to dodge predators. Hawks and cats are common around here...

pardalinum - Love the picture of Heckle ! My family got a big kick out of the bag of peanuts story.