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Steller's Jay feeding behavior question (3 Viewers)

Katy Penland

Katy Penland

Well-known member
After doing a search here on BF for this behavior and finding no reference to it, thought I'd ask if anyone here has any info. Cornell's site doesn't mention this, either.

Steller's and other jays, when selecting whole (unshelled, roasted) peanuts will systematically pick up one after another until deciding on one and taking off with it. The speculation here on BF (and elsewhere) is that the birds are possibly weighing the peanuts to take the heaviest (best) one.

However, after years of watching that behavior, I've now seen another one relative to the same kind of peanut that I've never observed until moving to this location (California). Same species (Steller's) but the coastal variant (not the interior west that I observed for several years in high alpine, north central Arizona).

And that behavior is, a jay will BRING BACK a selected peanut after having flown off with it, drop it on the deck with the remaining peanuts, and choose another.

My question is why would they do this? Why wouldn't the bird just drop it wherever it flew off to and then come back to select another? I find it utterly fascinating that a wild bird will return to exchange one peanut for another a la a human retail store. ;)

Anyone else ever see this behavior? Or know why?
 
Katy Penland;2062861And that behavior is said:
First question is: what time of year does this occur? All year round or only at a certain time? Many corvids build larders, often by storing acorns for example. Perhaps the behaviour you observed was ome kind of intermediate stage - assembling the contents before finding a suitable larder.
MJB
Click to expand...
 
MJB said:
First question is: what time of year does this occur? All year round or only at a certain time? Many corvids build larders, often by storing acorns for example. Perhaps the behaviour you observed was ome kind of intermediate stage - assembling the contents before finding a suitable larder.
MJB
Click to expand...
Year-round. Of all the resident and migratory species, the Steller's is the only one I've observed returning food to exchange.
 
Katy Penland said:
After doing a search here on BF for this behavior and finding no reference to it, thought I'd ask if anyone here has any info. Cornell's site doesn't mention this, either.

Steller's and other jays, when selecting whole (unshelled, roasted) peanuts will systematically pick up one after another until deciding on one and taking off with it. The speculation here on BF (and elsewhere) is that the birds are possibly weighing the peanuts to take the heaviest (best) one.

However, after years of watching that behavior, I've now seen another one relative to the same kind of peanut that I've never observed until moving to this location (California). Same species (Steller's) but the coastal variant (not the interior west that I observed for several years in high alpine, north central Arizona).

And that behavior is, a jay will BRING BACK a selected peanut after having flown off with it, drop it on the deck with the remaining peanuts, and choose another.

My question is why would they do this? Why wouldn't the bird just drop it wherever it flew off to and then come back to select another? I find it utterly fascinating that a wild bird will return to exchange one peanut for another a la a human retail store. ;)

Anyone else ever see this behavior? Or know why?
Click to expand...

Fascinating observations. The closest I've seen to the behavior you've described involves my backyard flock of semi-tame Scrub Jays. On a few occasions one of jays had a piece of natural food (an acorn or berry) in his bill when he spotted peanuts I had just thrown out. He thereupon went to the peanuts, made his selection (after “weighing” the various candidates) & flew off with it, leaving the old food behind. In this case--& maybe in that of your Steller’s Jays as well--it probably wasn’t so much a case of “exchanging” one food item for another as of being unwilling to let go of what he already had before securing something better.
 
MJB said:
One for the behavioural experts - there must be a few on this forum!
MJB
Click to expand...
LOL, yep, there sure are. Hope one of them is a bird psychologist so we can find out what the birds' thought processes are in doing this. I know, I know, that's a bit too much to hope for. :t:
 
fugl said:
... In this case--& maybe in that of your Steller’s Jays as well--it probably wasn’t so much a case of “exchanging” one food item for another as of being unwilling to let go of what he already had before securing something better.
Click to expand...
Hmmm, interesting point. Like maybe a bird just grabbed whatever it could before being scared off by more incoming (birds, squirrels) and then came back for a "better" peanut...

Wish I'd kept better watch last fall when it was easy to tell the sub-adults from mature birds to see if there was an age (or "experience") bias one way or the other. I.e., I can easily imagine a younger bird being "insecure" about what it nabbed on the first try.
 
My neighbors all have mature peanut trees from all those pods planted over the last 17 years by the local scrub jays.
 
Chris D said:
My neighbors all have mature peanut trees from all those pods planted over the last 17 years by the local scrub jays.
Click to expand...
Um, I'm a little confused. :h?:

Peanuts don't grow into trees but into fairly short plants, around two feet tall. Also, I wouldn't have thought roasted seeds/nuts would germinate -- raw ones, possibly, but raw peanuts should never, ever be fed to birds due to the potential for aflatoxin poisoning. But I know next to nothing about how to grow anything from seeds (except maybe a few wildflowers).

You sure it wasn't acorns the scrubs were caching that grew into, erm, scrub oaks? ;)
 
Scrub Jays are very interesting & engaging birds. I know someone whose jays actually come into her living room & hide peanuts behind the books on her book shelves. Some of my jays a few years ago would fly into the house & land on the dinner table while we were eating, but always took the peanuts that we gave them outside to hide. These same birds would take peanuts from my hand--calmly "weighing" them before making a selection--& when the supplies that I threw out for them on the ground ran out would come & get me for more. If I was in the yard, they would try to lead me to the peanut bin & if I was in the house they would tap on the window.
 
Last edited:
Chris D said:
I have had neighbors remark, 'How do these whole peanuts get in my flower pots?'.....
Click to expand...
Yeah, I do kind of worry about that sometimes because lots of people are finicky about their "gardens" and view whole peanuts as litter. But after one good wind, all the empty (or full) shells blow somewhere else anyway, and the birds seem to find them -- and if they don't, the squirrels and chipmunks certainly do!
 
fugl said:
Scrub Jays are very interesting & engaging birds. I know someone whose jays actually come into living room & hide peanuts behind the books on her book shelves. Some of my jays a few years ago would fly into the house & land on the dinner table while we were eating, but always took the peanuts that we gave them outside to hide. These same birds would take peanuts from my hand--calmly "weighing" them before making a selection--& when the supplies that I threw out for them on the ground ran out would come & get me for more. If I was in the yard, they would try to lead me to the peanut bin & if I was in the house they would tap on the window.
Click to expand...
Isn't it amazing how easily trainable we humans are? LOL! Where I lived in AZ, the Steller's Jays there would come to my bedroom window if I wasn't up early enough for their liking and wait for the peanuts to be tossed into the yard.

I do find the scrubs far more gregarious and less reticent to approach than the Steller's. I don't actually encourage this, though, just because I don't want them getting too comfy around humans. I live in a "second home" vacation area now, and most of the owners are weekenders, many of whom are actually afraid of ALL wildlife, even birds. Would hate for any of the native critters to get too close to someone who could do them harm. Don't know why people buy/build in a national forest when they don't actually WANT the wildlife around. Bizarre!
 
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