Aw thanks, Ann - now I'm *really* confused!!!

Sheryl that's pretty Bluebird art work. Ann love the Catbird songs and calls.

A few photos of my beautiful Steller's Jays. In the last photo it was really cold and he was really fluffed up to stay warm.

Margaret: Wow, the Stellar's Jay is absolutely gorgeous! I just went to the Cornell Orniothology Lab site: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/g... to read about them because we don't get them here. It sure is a beautiful bird and it's habits are similar to the Blue Jay but their sound/call is softer and sweeter than our Blue Jay. Many folks here don't like our Blue Jay. Some people think they are bully birds, but I've never seen them bullying other birds. They have voracious appetites and are noisy and loud but I love my Jays!

I love mine. I've never seen the Blue Jays here bullying either. Just loud and raucous and, yes, they do eat a lot.

Tee: They sure are loud, but still so much fun to watch!

The only birds I have ever seen the Blue Jays bully are the Scrub Jays & I love them both but the Scrub Jays are having a hard enough time with losing a lot of their habitat. But...nature is what nature is.

Wow! Those Stellar Jays are indeed STELLAR!

plantladylin said:Tee: They sure are loud, but still so much fun to watch!

These birds are just so beautiful, aren't they, Ann?

You betcha!

Ann: I've never had the opportunity to see the threatened Florida Scrub Jay. It sure is a beautiful bird and it's so unfortunate that they are perishing because of loss of habitat!

Lin, they ARE so beautiful! They are one of the prettiest birds I've ever seen I think. We had a pair coming to our yard for several years. Actually, one day I was outside & suddenly this bird swooped down & landed on the top of the wall right next to me & sat there looking at me! That long beak was almost in my face & it sort of took me aback. People in the area were feeding them & we put out peanuts after that too. They kind of took to our place & when the peanuts were gone the male would sit on the back of a chair on the back porch (where we could see through the sliding glass) & scream to wake the dead! He was demanding more peanuts! He would actually land on us anytime we were outside. If we laid in the sun he (& she) would land on our back or feet or head --- you just never knew. Our dog, an Aussie, got totally used to them & they paid her no never mind. Her water bowl sat right by the slider & even though we had 2 birdbaths the Scrub Jays preferred to bathe in the dogs bowl. Scream to high heaven all the while they bathed! BUT they would completely trash the slider (not to mention the dogs water). I would go out, clean the slider, wash & refill the dog bowl & 5 minutes later the Scrub Jays would be back trashing everything again. It was a riot when they were breeding. The female demanded to be fed by HIM always. And she would B&%$# at him!!!!!! He had the look of a harassed male for sure. It was so funny! She would sit there with a perfect spiral in her belly feathers from sitting on the eggs. He worked his tail feathers off providing food when nesting season was going on. I could actually see him losing weight.
Then the Blue Jays moved in & the two Jay factions fought it out for about 2 years with the result of the Scrub Jays moving out leaving the territory for the Blues.

The Blue Jars are really pretty too. Lin the 3rd. call is the one they use when they want their peanuts. They are smart birds, they mostly disappear into the more forested areas during nesting, but once the babies leave the nest they bring them to my garden and teach them to beg for peanuts, they are so funny trying to figure out how to crack the shell.

I know some people are against feeding the birds but I have seen an increase in their numbers in the over ten years that I have lived here, especially the jays.

Margaret, I can't remember where I saw it but I saw a video that someone doing a study did about how curious & how smart at figuring things out Blue Jays were. So, what they did was tie a piece of string to a tree limb far enough away from anything else so the Jay HAD to sit on the limb to do this --- then the string was long enough to drop down & hanging in midair from it was tied a peanut. The Jay had to figure out how to get the peanut. If I recall correctly, it took either 6 tries or 6 minutes for the Jay to solve all the problems & get the peanut. It had to pull the string up with it's beak a little at the time & then hold that slack with it's claws while pulling more slack up & catching that under it's claw until it had the string completely up & got the peanut. That's a pretty amazing demonstration of their intelligence. I was impressed!

The only Jays we have here are Blue Jays. Sometimes they eat the winterberries out here near the patio and sometimes the sunflower seeds. When the acorns fall from my neighbors big oak they do love to eat them. They eat the ones crushed by the cars on his driveway. Smart birds.

Wow Ann that was a very interesting experiment with the Jays.

Another very smart bird I found out just this year is the Clark's Nutcracker. I used to only see those birds high in the tall pines but since the pine beetle pretty well wiped out all of those trees for the first time last year I had one visit my suet feeders. This summer I had one join the jays for peanuts, then two of them. Now I have four. When I'm outside they follow me around the yard and they are very talkative.




In the second photo he is looking at me in the shed waiting for more peanuts even though his pouch is full.

The third photo I have the bedroom window open and he is talking to me, so cute.

The fourth photo he is looking in the kitchen window to see if I am there, as soon as he sees me he gets up closer so that he can peer in at me.

I think Blue Jays are beautiful birds. I have never seen them bully other birds but they sure will bully a human if they feel threatened. When I was growing up we had a tree right out our front door that Blue Jays nested in every year. If they had babies in the nest they would dive bomb you until you left. It made going in and out of the house quite a challenge.

That's funny Stephanie!!

It's funny to me know too, but as a child it was scary

As a child I liked the cardinals we had that would nest in our honeysuckle vine each year. They would let me watch them with out trying to attack me