Blue Jay

I wrote a couple weeks ago about my excitement at hearing some Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata) in the yard. For the last couple of weeks, I have been attempting to get a snap shot of one in the yard. Unfortunately, it just hadn’t worked out until today. It turns out that blue jays are quite skittish and apparently have phenomenal eye sight. Each time I stood to get closer to the window, the jay would fly away.

When I came home for lunch (which has become my primary daily bird watching time) today, I saw a white-breasted nuthatch at the wooden feeder. So I picked up my camera from the coffee table and zoomed in. I’m am by no means thrilled with the digital zoom, but I was able to get the best shot to date of this little bird that is also frustratingly skittish. After it flew away I put my camera down so I could each my bowl of ravioli. I was about half-way through when I saw a jay zoom by the window. I quickly picked up my camera in the hopes that it would land near the feeder. A few seconds later, it did so and I was able to get a few shots off. The shots I got weren’t high quality, but I was thrilled to have finally gotten any shot in which a blue jay could be distinguished!


A Blue Jay looking inquisitively at a Dark-eyed Junco

About ten minutes later another jay shows up and I got a couple more shots before it flew off. Then the nuthatch returned and I was able to get an even better shot of it. I was about ready to put my camera down when the jay showed up again. As it was searching for the perfect seed, a junco landed and, even though I was implementing the digital zoom, I captured some cool shots of the two of them pecking around. Then another jay showed up and was joined a moment later by a third one. I was like a little kid in a candy shop!


Two jays visiting the yard

Blue jays are certainly fun to watch and their varieties of calls are as unmistakable as their coloration. I have not personally heard it yet, but blue jays can apparently mimic the call of a hawk. After observing the smaller birds, blue jays look huge in comparison. This is particularly noticeable in the pictures I got of the jay and junco together (the junco itself is noticeably larger than the chickadees, gold finches, siskins, etc. that visit the feeders.) I’ve read on a couple other blogs that in some communities, jays have been known to become a bit of a nuisance by hogging feeders. I am keeping an eye on the jays, but for now they seem to only temporarily scare off the other birds. Fortunately for the smaller birds, my feeders are not sufficiently large enough for jays to land upon. Fortunately for the jays (and the ground-feeding junco) the other birds toss enough seeds overboard to keep them happy. A final observation I have made is that jays generally do not eat directly below the feeders; preferring instead to grab a couple of seeds and head to a nearby bush to crack the seeds open and enjoy the meat inside.

As a side note, the first deep freeze of the winter arrived overnight. So far the birds don’t seem to mind the bitter cold, although I did notice the seed mix in the feeders did seem to disappear a little quicker today…

When I imported the photo files onto my computer earlier today, I noticed a few frames where the pole appeared to have swallowed a jay and I found it rather humorous. Here’s a collage of that series for your enjoyment: