# Do blue jays attack other birds?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 6, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271 "2025-06-06T16:25:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/1 "2025-06-06T16:25:46Z")
Out my window I saw a blue jay attack a baby sparrow. Just before I reached it, the jay picked up and then dropped the baby, possibly because I was getting close. Why would it do this? Hunger?
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/2 "2025-06-06T16:34:02Z")
Predation, possibly. They’ll even go after chicken chicks.
> **[Blue Jays, The Surprisingly Aggressive Chicken Predator - Home in the Finger...](https://homeinthefingerlakes.com/blue-jays-the-surprisingly-aggressive-chicken-predator/)**
>
> It is highly unlikely a Blue Jay would make an attack attempt at a full grown chicken, but they have been known to hunt and kill chicks, and raid nests for eggs, and harrass bakyard flocks.
They are pretty crows, after all.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/3 "2025-06-06T16:36:34Z")
Yes. Blue Jays are assholes.
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### Author:  [@DaveUnknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveUnknown)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/4 "2025-06-06T16:37:41Z")
I know they eat other birds’ eggs. I find them nice to look at, but annoying.
Sorry Torontonians.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/5 "2025-06-06T16:38:08Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> Blue Jays are assholes.
Nature’s Little Assholes, corvid division.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/6 "2025-06-06T16:44:25Z")
I love mine, but yep, they are dicks for no good reason. I put out enough almonds, walnuts, pecans and seed mix for all the birds in my neighborhood a couple of times a week to enjoy looking at while I have my coffee.
They are good until the almonds run out, the flying pigs will take 4 or 5 at a time! After that they are too full to fight. I notice they don’t pick on other birds their own size like cardinals and they won’t ever mess with the woodpecker. But they push around the little birds all the time.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/7 "2025-06-06T16:45:00Z")
Yes, I’ve seen them raid other bird’s nests to eat the chicks.
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/8 "2025-06-06T17:27:43Z")
Cardinals are assholes, too. In many neighborhoods you’ll find a gang of Cardinals going from feeder to feeder, and shooing away any other birds that might be at a feeder when they arrive at one.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/9 "2025-06-06T17:39:31Z")
Cardinals are definitely snooty. Like they expect you to kiss their ring or something.
I think they’re more territorial than Blue Jays and certainly push around smaller birds so they can hog the bird seed but Blue Jays seem to be yard thugs that go after all the other birds for no reason. They only fear crows and hawks in my backyard. The Cardinals do try to hold their own though.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/10 "2025-06-06T18:20:02Z")
The daily drama in my backyard is two bluejays dive bombing and driving away the (larger) crows that stray into the yard. I thought they were protecting a nest, but this has been going on for 3 or 4 months.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/11 "2025-06-06T18:36:22Z")
Well, they are dinosaurs, so pretty much anything smaller is fair game to get picked on or worse.
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/12 "2025-06-06T19:03:09Z")
Good news: we put the little bird (who wasn’t moving) on a washcloth in a box (with the lid cracked) and went to do errands. When we got home and checked it flew out and hid!
But we carefully picked it up and put it outside outside under a bush, and it quickly hopped onto a low branch. Here’s hoping it was just in shock.
And lots of hand washing!
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/13 "2025-06-06T19:23:21Z")
Cardinals are the neighborhood avian airheads-they would often get stuck inside my old pool screen and could never remember the place they got in (courtesy of a neighborhood dog who loved to swim in my pool), while the wrens never had any issues.
Blue Jays while acknowledged assholes will call attention to local predators to the benefit of all other fellow birds, but will often imitate them too, presumably to steal snacks while the rest are all freaked out and hiding.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/14 "2025-06-06T19:29:14Z")
Jays will attack anything. They harrie my garage cats all the time.
The cats love to sit on a bench and watch the birds at the feeders.
The Bluejays are the designated “Birds in Blue” of this neighborhood.
Yep, serious buttholes with a powerhead.
I’ve been dive bombed many times.
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/15 "2025-06-06T20:28:27Z")
Blue jays are commonly uncommon here. The jays are year round residents but I may not spot any for a season or two. In fact, I’ll frequently find a blue feather while mowing but no jays all summer.
But, yes, the last I remember seeing locally was at least a few weeks ago and had drawn attention to itself by engaging in combat with an adult downy woodpecker which are quite common. Both are tough squawkers and the fight was quite entertaining. I don’t think anyone got hurt and they both flew off but my suspicion is that the jay attacked the smaller woodpecker.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/16 "2025-06-06T20:57:18Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#):
>
> Jays will attack anything. They harrie my garage cats all the time.
One of the most impressive feats of ornithological action I ever saw was a blue jay dive-bombing a neighborhood cat, hitting it so hard the cat did a somersault, and then flying off as if nothing happened.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/17 "2025-06-06T22:25:09Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> > [@TriPolar](#):
> >
> > Blue Jays are assholes.
>
> Nature’s Little Assholes, corvid division.
All corvids are assholes on a certain level.
Unless they like you. Then they bring you pretty shiny things and hope you give them food in return.
Don’t piss them off - they will remember your individual face for years, and tell their children so they’ll hate you, too.
All of the above is true.
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### Author:  [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2025, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/18 "2025-06-06T23:30:50Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> while the wrens never had any issues.
Wrens (House Wrens at least ) are murderous little bastards!
As are House Sparrows but everybody knows that
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2025, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/19 "2025-06-07T01:09:48Z")
Gotta remember - those cute, feathered little birds that are sooo adorable…
… their ancestors survived shit that killed off all the T. Rex’s.
They’re as ruthless as they are pretty.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-blue-jays-attack-other-birds/1019271/20 "2025-06-07T14:19:45Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#):
>
> In many neighborhoods you’ll find a gang of Cardinals going from feeder to feeder
This has long been a problem after-hours in Vatican City.
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