Is this bluejay(?) building a new nest? (bird behavior)

Factual Questions
1

Some general information that may help someone answer the question…

I live in the Pacific NW (just outside of Portland). There is approximately 15 feet between my house and my neighbors. We both have one story, standard suburbia homes. My side porch buts up against a side of their house that doesn’t have any windows.

I was outside reading this afternoon when a large blue bird with a black head, started doing some work next door. He was up along the gutter, bending his head in, and pulling out a lot of leaves which he then dropped to the ground. He did this all along the gutter (I don’t think it’s been cleaned in awhile) for about 10 minutes.

Then he flew down to my yard and started picking up leaves, dropping them, and picking up different stuff. Leaves, sticks, bark chips, etc. Apparently, he finally found just the piece he was looking for and flew back up to the neighbors gutter and dropped it in. Then he kept ducking his head down like maybe he was positioning it, or pushing it down or something. When I shut my book to come in, he got scared and flew into a tree and watched me for a couple of minutes, then I came in.

I guess I have a few questions that I’m looking for answers to;

  1. Do you think it’s a bluejay? It doesn’t look like this exactlybecause the head is almost all black.

  2. Is it building a nest in the gutter? If so, why now in the fall? Should it already have a nest?

  3. What will happen when the inevitable fall rains begin. If the nest is destroyed, will the bird live? I’m not exactly a PETA member by any means, but I’d rather go destroy the nest while in the construction phase if that can convince him to move it somewhere else.

  4. If he is in fact building a nest there, I’ve got to assume that he doesn’t have the appropriate permits. Not only do most birds not have very much money, but the idea that the city, town, or county would allow for the construction of a complete separate domicile on top of an already existing single family home is ludicrous. I don’t want to get into a spat with him, in case by some miracle he has managed to pass through the bureaucracy of the county unscathed and will eventually be my neighbor, but I also don’t want this construction to diminish the value or endanger my home if it’s not properly constructed. Should I turn him in? How would other dopers handle it?
    (Mods, I’m aware this last question is more suited to IMHO, so if I get a factual answer to 1, 2, and 3 please move to IMHO)

I will try to snap a picture when he’s back from wherever he is (I assume he went to NestDepot or something) and post it, but I have a crappy camera.

2

It’s a Steller’s Jay, the western counterpart of the Blue Jay.

It’s very unlikely he was building a nest. They would certainly not be nesting at this time of year, and a gutter would be an unlikely place to put a nest in any case.

He was almost certainly looking for insects or other food in the leaves in the first gutter. I don’t know why he might have placed a bark chip in the neighbor’s gutter.

3

Thanks for the quick answer!

So if he’s up there again, I’ll just assume he’s found a buffet of insects living there.

4

I’m thinking jays are related to crows & magpies, which have a habit of collecting bright shiny things. Maybe what we assume to be a bark chip is really some cool object for his stash? Don’t know why he’d keep his stash in the gutter, though.