You liked my cardinal from yesterday, so I’ll share this jay I also got a pic of yesterday.
Same Pixel 7 through China binocs and dirty patio door 😁
BIRD
I think you’re correct.
I’m very wise
I’ve been feeding my local murder of crows roasted peanuts for the past few years. Recently I’ve started noticing one bluejay that shows up occasionally to kick their asses. There’s six or seven of these small-chicken-sized black birds and this one little bluejay runs them off. He eats a couple of peanuts and then guards the rest.
That’s one brave jay!
One time I caught my just family taunting the heck out of the Red Tailed Hawk here. I heard a big commotion outside and just saw this giant mass of fluff up in the tree.
This hawk was all puffed up, jumping after these jays squeaking at it in the branches. I’m the tree they were much more agile and just annoyed it until it left.
From learning so much about owls, at first it’s a wonder these small birds pick on others so much larger and potentially deadly than the actual aggressor is. They don’t seem to actually get physical very often, moreso they just put on their best bravado and annoy the larger bird into leaving.
As the big one has lost the element of surprise, it usually won’t risk an injury and will leave instead. It’s not the obvious tactic one would imagine, but it’s interesting how the tiny birds can level the playing field a bit, just be being loud and giving the bigger birds their equivalent of “crazy eyes.” 😀
It’s funny, my same local murder likes to gang up on hawks when they show up from time to time. But the hawks just ignore them. My crow buddies are sissies.
“Get my good side.”
Lol these guys did not want to sit still yesterday. I took about a dozen photos and had to scroll through the motion photo stills to get this one.
Your pics are impressive!
I’m glad you like them. Having a bigger optical zoom thanks to the binocs is a huge upgrade, and I’ve been trying to go less heavy handed in editing.
This guy is a little more blue here than in real life, but I felt it’s closer to what the average person think in their mind when they hear “bluejay” instead of the natural grey color of the back.
Pretty kitty.
Woof!
I love these noisy jerks! I often forget how big they are until I see them next to little sparrows
Mine are very polite compared to their general reputation. They only harass each other.
The finches are typically the bossy ones here.
I’ve seen Blue Jays swoop down and “scream” at all the birds currently at the feeders- it’s quite a sight to see. (Usually they just “take turns” with the sparrows/finches and cardinals)
I started hand feeding them during COVID. I had been giving them shelled peanuts, but upgraded them to the in shell variety after we become buddies. Now that’s all they want, so they don’t really mind anyone else being there. The squirrels try to beat them to them though. The jays will enforce their own heirarchy between themselves though, and that is fun to watch. There’s also one that normally picks up every peanut to weigh it in its beak before deciding which one it wants. Greedy lil bugger!
I use a slingshot to fire peanuts off my patio to them and the squirrels. It also works good to get them to the more shy peanut eaters like the cardinals and titmice. They finally picked it up from watching the jays.
That’s amazing!
They still recognize me and the sound of my door opening, but when I had every day to spend with them, they’d recognize me coming up the walk and had a pretty solid order of who would eat in what order.
They’d call when they saw me outside and they’d gather up in the 2 closest trees and they’d come one by one to get a nut and return to their spot to eat it.
Now they come in faster and fly away a bit further, but they still recognize me as good people.
The slingshot lets me feed a less “assertive” bird if one shows up. I can fling it right to them at 75-100ft and they can quick get it hopefully before a jay or squirrel snipes it from them.
