Blue Jays weighing whole peanuts? (1 Viewer)

Hi Everyone,

I read someone mention a Blue Jay weighing whole peanuts. Is this what they are doing when they pick up and drop whole peanuts until they decide which ones to take?

I was thinking they may be thinking which ones would fit in their mouth so they could fly off with 3. The weighing peanuts makes much more sense.

On the whole peanut topic when a Squirrel turns a whole peanut near his mouth is he smelling the peanut to gage it's condition/age and weather to store it in one of their nests or bury it?

Thanks!

YellowBudgie said:

Hi Everyone,

I read someone mention a Blue Jay weighing whole peanuts. Is this what they are doing when they pick up and drop whole peanuts until they decide which ones to take? ...
Thanks!

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I've been observing and feeding Steller's Jays whole peanuts from a tray feeder for a number of years and can confirm that the weighing theory is consistent with my observations. After picking up and shaking a few alternatives, the birds consistenly fly off with the largest one sampled. And if the tray ever goes empty, one particular jay will come to the kitchen window, peek inside, and if he/she sees me will then tap on the pane until I come out to refill the feeder.

Robert / Seattle said:

I've been observing and feeding Steller's Jays whole peanuts from a tray feeder for a number of years and can confirm that the weighing theory is consistent with my observations. After picking up and shaking a few alternatives, the birds consistenly fly off with the largest one sampled. And if the tray ever goes empty, one particular jay will come to the kitchen window, peek inside, and if he/she sees me will then tap on the pane until I come out to refill the feeder.

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Western Scrub-jays (Reno, Nevada) also "weigh" whole peanuts in the way described, often when tossed a handful of 2 or 3 picking up and shaking each in turn several times in rapid succession before making a choice and flying off with it.

Interesting enough, just like your Steller's Jay, a scrub-jay used to come to my kitchen window last winter to "fetch" whoever might be standing there (me or my wife), sometimes tapping to get our attention and sometimes just quietly perching for few seconds and then flying off again. We always cooperated by going to the back door and tossing out a few peanuts, thus reinforcing the behavior. Our resident flock at the time consisted of 5-6 scrub-jays, all of which were quite tame and came at my whistle for peanuts, but as far as I could tell only one particular individual ever went to the window to get us in this way

Fred Petersen
Reno, Nevada

Robert / Seattle said:

I've been observing and feeding Steller's Jays whole peanuts from a tray feeder for a number of years and can confirm that the weighing theory is consistent with my observations. After picking up and shaking a few alternatives, the birds consistenly fly off with the largest one sampled. And if the tray ever goes empty, one particular jay will come to the kitchen window, peek inside, and if he/she sees me will then tap on the pane until I come out to refill the feeder.

Click to expand...

I just looked up the Steller's Jay and what a beautiful bird! Thats very neat to have a jay tapping on the window. No sleeping in for you I've always enjoyed the smarter birds that know your the person who feeds them.

Have you tried hand feeding the Jay that comes to the window when your outside?

See ya,

YellowBudgie said:

I just looked up the Steller's Jay and what a beautiful bird! Thats very neat to have a jay tapping on the window. No sleeping in for you I've always enjoyed the smarter birds that know your the person who feeds them.

Have you tried hand feeding the Jay that comes to the window when your outside?

See ya,

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Hi YellowBudgie,

I haven't quite had the patience to be consistent with the daily conditioning required to get them to feed from hand, although I do understand that it's quite easy to do so. They will, however, come within 2 feet of me to snatch peanuts from the railing if I put some out as a tease.

At Olympic National Park the Gray (Canada) Jays will take food readily from hand, as will the Clark's Nutcracker in Mt. Rainier and North Cascades National Parks. I suspect the constant supply of friendly tourists have already provided the necessary conditioning. (But we all know that we're not supposed to feed the wildlife in National Parks, right? -- and by the way, I dont).

And you are so right about the beauty of the Steller's Jay. One of my all time favorites and I feel fortunate to have them in my daily life.

Robert / Seattle

fugl said:

Western Scrub-jays (Reno, Nevada) also "weigh" whole peanuts in the way described, often when tossed a handful of 2 or 3 picking up and shaking each in turn several times in rapid succession before making a choice and flying off with it.

Interesting enough, just like your Steller's Jay, a scrub-jay used to come to my kitchen window last winter to "fetch" whoever might be standing there (me or my wife), sometimes tapping to get our attention and sometimes just quietly perching for few seconds and then flying off again. We always cooperated by going to the back door and tossing out a few peanuts, thus reinforcing the behavior. Our resident flock at the time consisted of 5-6 scrub-jays, all of which were quite tame and came at my whistle for peanuts, but as far as I could tell only one particular individual ever went to the window to get us in this way

Fred Petersen
Reno, Nevada

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The Scrub Jays are also very nice looking birds. I like the Blue/White combination.

During the winter here in Massachusetts the Blue Jays feed in large groups at our house. I've been putting out whole peanuts for them every morning for about a year now.

During the winter the first Blue Jay will do a food call and 10 to 15 more will come to the tree to look out for hawks. They grab 1 to 3 peanuts and fly to their home tree. The dominant Jay stays in the tree near the house and opens the peanuts in his tree.

If I wake up late about 15 Blue Jays will wait for me in the tree, call and call until they get their peanuts. I have seen Blue Jays trying to get my attention by perching in another tree as close to my window as they can but it's 30 feet away.

Once summer hits they get very protective and no longer do the food call. We will get more than one Jay but normally the dominant one defends the tree and the others have to fly in and grab a nut and fly off.

I think if I had enough time the Jay would come close and possibly take a peanut from me. My father had him/her coming pretty close the other day. A few feet away.

I should make a little stand outside my window to leave some peanuts for a jay. I could leave the screen in the window at first so he/she gets used to the window and doesn't hit the glass.

I had the Gold Finches this close but they made a mess of the side of the house. It was so nice waking to see and hear Gold Finches and House Finches at the window.

See ya,

Robert / Seattle said:

Hi YellowBudgie,

I haven't quite had the patience to be consistent with the daily conditioning required to get them to feed from hand, although I do understand that it's quite easy to do so. They will, however, come within 2 feet of me to snatch peanuts from the railing if I put some out as a tease.

At Olympic National Park the Gray (Canada) Jays will take food readily from hand, as will the Clark's Nutcracker in Mt. Rainier and North Cascades National Parks. I suspect the constant supply of friendly tourists have already provided the necessary conditioning. (But we all know that we're not supposed to feed the wildlife in National Parks, right? -- and by the way, I dont).

And you are so right about the beauty of the Steller's Jay. One of my all time favorites and I feel fortunate to have them in my daily life.

Robert / Seattle

Click to expand...

I wish I had the time to try to hand feed the Jays for a few hours a day. When I get home from work I can just watch a few birds as it gets dark.

Thats about how close the Blue Jays come to us as well (2 feet). My Dad had them getting close to him the other day when a squirrel came up and started taking peanuts and freaked out when my dad moved. It's funny they will come 2 / 3 feet away from me with the sliding door open where I digiscope from. But they stay back when I sit outside. They think the large open window is safe. Maybe I can get them close by sitting outside before I leave for work. If I could just wake up a little earlier.

I would think most people would feed the birds anything they would eat at the national parks without thinking about the birds health. That may be one of a number of reasons for the restriction. It sounds like such a nice experience. Youtube has videos of this and friendly squirrels. There one friendly Raven at a camp site. If some parks let you bring wild seed to place on the ground to see the birds up close and for photos that would be nice.

I'll see ya!