Blue Jays Attempt to Defend Fledgling from Crow (2 Viewers)

I'm only a casual bird watcher, but I had an unusual incident this morning in my back yard. I live on the Texas Gulf Coast (League City, just south of Houston) and I've been accustomed to seeing blue jays pretty much all my life.

This morning, I heard a lot of noise from outside my back door and recognized it as blue jays in an alarmed state -- but I had never heard so many of them screaming at once. I looked out my window and saw several of them in the tree limbs, on the deck outside the door, some diving down/up toward the deck. I moved to another window and saw that a crow had a young blue jay pinned to the deck.

I rushed out the back door and the crow immediately flew off, with some of the blue jays in chase and a couple remaining in the area of the injured young one. I thought I might be able to help the injured bird, but the damage was too great, and sadly the fledgling died shortly after the attack.

I found the attack to be pretty upsetting, never having actually seen a crow kill another bird before. We don't see crows a lot in our neighborhood, with them not being much of backyard birds (at least, never that way anywhere I've lived). I have also never seen such a large group of blue jays ban together to defend against another animal. I've seen similar behavior when they chase off a cat, but not in such numbers. This was something like eight blue jays all going after the crow, trying to drive it away from the young one. I'm guessing the the mother or parents sounded the alarm when the young one was attacked and the others immediately flew in to help with the defense.

Anyone else ever see anything like this before? Just curious. I'm still saddened by the killing of the fledgling, but strangely uplifted (in part) by the adults banning together to defend their young.

Well, the crows know where food is. They usually steal them right out of the nest. I have seen nestlings carried by the neck, pretty much dead by then, chased by the jays. So when nestlings run out, they go after clueless young birds.

I know what you witnessed was sad but keep in mind that it is just nature. Perhaps a raw moment in nature to the viewer but nature nonetheless. It's been going on for years before we came on the scene.

BTW, A warm welcome to you from the entire staff here at BirdForum :t:

Oh, and that Blue Jay alarm calls that you heard is called "mobbing"

Thanks for the welcome and the info, KC. |=)|

And yeah, I'm accustomed to seeing many similar things in life -- but, I think seeing it 10 feet outside my back door made me view it differently...like something I didn't want to allow in the relative peace of my own immediate, personal surroundings.

It's funny, too, that the "mobbing" also drew me into the fray. I guess it works...|;|... (although it was too late, in this case).

Al

I bet Blue Jays do the same thing too!

They do, although I've never seen it.

Yes, nature is not the Bambi wonderland that many of us were led to believe it is by Disney et al. That doesn't mean it isn't hard to take sometimes. I once saw a couple of crows robbing the nestlings from a Robin's nest. The cries of the parents were piteous. I almost went for my air rifle, but in the end, decided to try to be grown up about it. Tough love. It can hurt, that's for sure.

Blue Jays pick smaller birds to rob. It is a pecking order.

Just so I can be clear about what I'm saying, I'm not trying to make this thread about some kind of perceived animal kingdom injustice. It's all survival of the fittest.

I was more impressed with the rather large number of blue jays working together to defend against the crow, which I had never seen done to quite the degree (with as many jays involved) as in this particular case.

I didn't *like* seeing one bird kill another virtually at my back door, so I intervened -- which I see as a "my back yard, my prerogative" sort of thing. If a dog were killing a stray or wild cat in the same place, I'd do the same thing -- although that's just another case of something stronger killing something weaker, and (strictly speaking) another example of nature at work.

Certainly no judgment implied here.

longbow said:

Certainly no judgment implied here.

Click to expand...

Thanks, longbow... |;|

I stood next to a very loud mob of angry birds chasing something into the brush, many species joining in. Finally, a Blue Jay squirted out the back, the mob took off after him.

One "funny" thing was: Brown-headed Cowbirds joined in. I wonder why as they have no nest to defend from raiding Blue Jays.

buile, I wonder if what you're describing might have been a case of the blue jay being the aggressor toward another bird's nest and its young. Interesting about multiple species being involved. It would have also been interesting to know who/what the victim was in that incident.

Thanks for that feedback, too. That's the kind of thing I was hoping to hear more of (similar incidents of banding together against an aggressor).

> blue jay being the aggressor toward another bird's nest and its young.

That's absolutely what I understood as the event. At the time (July 5th, 2009) I had an impression of who the victim was, though I cannot recall now... maybe a Catbird nest.

I apologize that I fried the recording (too interested in the proceedings to watch the levels), but it gives an impression of the volume as the mobbing grew in intensity and got closer:

http://home.comcast.net/~buile/mobbing-07052009.wav

It went on for a couple minutes more after the clip above. Location was in the trees at center here: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...364,-74.497846&spn=0.001327,0.003026&t=h&z=19

> Interesting about multiple species being involved.

I hope I'm not misremembering, but I recall catbirds, chickadees, titmice, cardinals, wrens (maybe both House and Carolina), downy woodpeckers, yellow warblers, common yellowthroats, brown-headed cowbirds... more? All the while though, a white-eyed vireo kept singing as normal, rather aloof.

buile said:

One "funny" thing was: Brown-headed Cowbirds joined in. I wonder why as they have no nest to defend from raiding Blue Jays.

Click to expand...

True, but they have eggs that they don’t want eaten, albeit in other birds’ nests.

buile said:

I hope I'm not misremembering, but I recall catbirds, chickadees, titmice, cardinals, wrens (maybe both House and Carolina), downy woodpeckers, yellow warblers, common yellowthroats, brown-headed cowbirds... more? All the while though, a white-eyed vireo kept singing as normal, rather aloof.

Click to expand...

That's amazing. I've never seen or heard of anything quite like that before.