This perky Blue Jay dropped in with his pals for a snack of dried mealworms. But it wasn’t by accident, these intelligent birds seem to wait for me to put out mealworms, and as soon as I’m back in the house, they light on the deck and begin feasting.
Blue Jays are a common sight in the eastern half of the U.S. They live in wooded areas, especially near oak trees. That’s because Blue Jays love acorns and often build up large caches. They also eat seeds and insects.
Some people don’t like them because they’re aggressive. However, observations in Florida showed that grackles, red headed woodpeckers, and red bellied woodpeckers dominated them and crowded them out at feeders.
Blue jays communicate with each other verbally and through body language using their crests. They’re excellent mimics, too. They have been known to imitate a red shouldered hawk to drive other birds from feeders.
I enjoy the antics of these raucous birds and I hope there will be a lot more of them in the yard to deal with those annoying acorns.
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