Don’t get me wrong. Bluejays are probably my favorite bird. They’re attractive and gregarious. I really enjoy having them around. I recall the Mark Twain story about the really outgoing ones from Canada, are they called Whiskey Jakes??, who filled a cabin with acorns.
But these Bluejays in the back yard are really wasting birdseed. They get up on the bird feeder and flip out handfulls of seed with their beaks, actually eating only a small fraction of the seed. What are they so picky about? I’m sure the seed on the ground gets eaten (what doesn’t grows into sunflowers, which is always nice). But I’ve been having to fill the bird feeder every day! Usually it goes for a week! What’s up with these birds lately?
We use two feeders… one large tray for the bigger birds and the other a tube with narrow, short posts on the seed column that only the smaller birds can alight upon.
And those damned VULTURES! Eating up all the suet, and then swooping down in great lazy spirals to scarf up all the offal and guts and innards that I leave out for the wolverines! And don’t get me started about those frickin’ flying great white sharks! I guess they’re attracted by the wolverines, especially after the wolverines roll around in the greasy gore left on the ground after the vultures have eaten. Blue-Sky-White-Death just lazily comes floating by, his little feathered Mercury-Bootie-Wings down by his pectoral fins flapping like a hummingbird on steroids, and the next thing ya know there ain’t nothin’ left but wolverine tail-tips and snouts (which the sharks refuse to eat unless I leave out a bottle of ketchup). What a mess! Thank goodness for the Tyrannosaurs…
Gray Jay = Whiskey Jack.
Try having a bird in the house that likes to throw seed all over the place. I went through two vacuum cleaners in three years. And then he died. I’d give anything to clean up after him again.
But yeah, Blue Jays are messy little pigs. But gorgeous. I mean really gorgeous. But cheeky.
JS, the bluejays that frequent our feeders do the same thing. They’re after the peanuts and cracked corn that is in the birdseed mix we have.
We use a big ol’ Rubbermaid storage bin to keep our birdseed in. I buy several pounds of safflower seed, sunflower hearts, cracked corn, and thistle seed, and a couple of bags of “Nut and Berry” mix, and mix it all together in this bin. This mix goes into all of our feeders.
And I’ll tell you something, the finches that frequent our small feeder are just as guilty of throwing seed all over as the bluejays are. They’re only after the thistle, the little buggers! It works out okay, though, because the juncos, sparrows and mourning doves (the ground feeder types) appreciate the seed on the ground immensely.
We are using straight sunflower seeds and they still do it. I guess that’s what is most puzzling. The seeds do get eaten off the ground, though the feeder is unfortunately placed where we can’t see that action.
I assume it’s the cold snap that’s the problem. Those birds probably have to eat alot more, and since winter has come on fairly strong, feeders are their best bets. It’s weird how, if the temp rises a little, I don’t have to feed as much. I imagine they’re eating more to keep their little bodies warm. That’s why I only called them “dang” bluejays instead of something worse…
I’d give anything to clean up after him again.
