Strange Blue Jay Behavior
Bob Heidegger
Early this morning, my wife and I were woken up by a loud tapping at one
of our bedroom windows. Peeking through the blinds, I saw a Blue Jay
tapping at the glass. We know the Blue Jay wasn't trying to get our
attention (right?) but are puzzled by what it was doing. Why would a
Blue Jay do this?
Bob & Maureen Heidegger
Jack W. Crenshaw
Probably saw a bug on the glass, reckon?
Jack
Mary C. McCarthy
Well Bob, I can only add that I once had a Blue Jay pecking at a metal box that
contained an antennae rotator mechanism suspended on a high post (my
father's.......HAM radio buff). Maybe the Jay senses some sort of vibration from
the window pane and thinks it's a bunch of fat juicy bugs? Although our Jay
continued to peck away at this metal box which led me to think that maybe he was
making some sort of territorial statement to the other birds since he was
obviously not getting any bugs out of the metal box.
Brian Adams
Jack W. Crenshaw wrote:
>
> Bob Heidegger wrote:
> >
> > Early this morning, my wife and I were woken up by a loud tapping at one
> > of our bedroom windows. Peeking through the blinds, I saw a Blue Jay
> > tapping at the glass. We know the Blue Jay wasn't trying to get our
> > attention (right?) but are puzzled by what it was doing. Why would a
> > Blue Jay do this?
> >
> > Bob & Maureen Heidegger
>
>
> Jack
Aw, come on, Jack! He saw his reflection. Many birds will peck at
their reflections, for a variety of reasons, at all times of the year.
This time of year it's often a yearling still learning about windows
and mirrors. We have an immature Red-tailed Hawk here at work right
now attacking and "mantling" (raising his wings) at his reflection in
mirrored windows. After a while he'll stop being interested. Jays
are notorious for window pecking.
Some birds are just curious, but in nesting season they're also
furious at what seems to be a rival, and even wisened birds will
attack their reflection. Most of us have seen American Robins throwing
themselves at windows.
On second thought, it *could* have been a bug ;-) but not if the
pecking lasted more than a few seconds.
Brian Adams
Reno
lin...@ime.net
Why would a Blue Jay do this?
>> >
>> > Bob & Maureen Heidegger
>>
>> Probably saw a bug on the glass, reckon?
>>
>> Jack
>
>Aw, come on, Jack! He saw his reflection. Many birds will peck at
>
>On second thought, it *could* have been a bug ;-) but not if the
>pecking lasted more than a few seconds.
>
>Brian Adams
>Reno
Bob & Maureen,
Jack & Brian could both be right. Or, maybe the bird DID want to get
your attention. Do you have feeders? Were they empty?
Several Blue Jays frequent the feeders I have suspended from my deck
railing, as well as a platform feeder atop a pole near the deck. I've
counted as many as 17 Blue Jays at the feeders, on the railing & in
nearby trees at one time. A couple of the more demanding jays will
rap at the hanging feeder & /or the barbecue grill, on the deck when
"their" feeder is empty.
My personal favorite is the "fellow" who is so demanding that he
would perch on the back of a deck chair & bang on the bay window if
the feeder was empty for more than a day, which occasionally happens
as my husband & I both work 12 hour shifts, and at 4AM, the bird
feeder is not my top priority . With the coming of winter (we've
gotten over a foot of snow in the past 7 days) I put all the deck
furniture in storage so for the past few weeks he hasn't had a chair
to perch on. But that hasn't slowed him down a bit! The day after
last week's snow storm I heard something at the door & assuming it
was the cat, opened the door to let her in, but a Blue Jay flew up
from the deck instead! I realized the feeders where caked with snow,
so I cleared them off, went inside & the jays immediately returned to
the feeders. We've had two more days of snow since & on the morning
after each there's been a tapping at the back door!!
This past summer, I might have believed, but didn't, that the little
blue guy was pecking at a bug on the window, or at his reflection, but
the door is painted a flat, dull gray and there's not a bug moving
anywhere, yet he's rapping on it anyway. I think he just might be
trying to get my attention!
Lindac
Maine
Billy and Brenda Dunbar
I know of a Tufted Titmouse that window-tapped when the feeder was
empty. Why not a Blue Jay?
--
For the birds,
Billy ^v^ ^v^
^v^
Note: To reply, remove "wienerdog"
from my address
(address is munged to avoid spam)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's a feeling I get
When I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.
Led Zeppelin
Stairway To Heaven
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Prall
It's entirely plausible that a wild bird should learn to repeat any
behaviour that gets more food, including tapping on the door of the
keeper of a bird feeder. It does not require a subtle philosophical
act by the bird, like "Oh, those humans who live here need to get that
bag they have and fill our feeder" All it takes is some probing around
when the feeder is empty, which may happen to draw your attention.
You fill the feeder, and the bird's powerful "Pavlov" instinct says
"try that behaviour again." If it works twice, they'll keep at it.
If you stop responding, the association would be exinguished after a
while.
This is not to say that birds might not be capable of some very subtle
thinking as well. A great book on this point is _Bird Brains_ which
has excellent photos to go with a stimulating text on intelligence
among corvids (crows, ravens, jays & magpies.)
--
-- Jim Prall | Gandalf Graphics Limited | Wise men create
-- Toronto, Canada | Indigo E-Print on-demand 4/4C | proverbs; fools
-- ._ ._ ._ ._ ._ ._| & 4-up imposed film & proofing | repeat them.
Richard Talley
In article <p7d8jfb...@trigraph.on.ca>, Jim Prall
<ji...@trigraph.on.ca> wrote:
> It does not require a subtle philosophical
> act by the bird, like "Oh, those humans who live here need to get that
> bag they have and fill our feeder" All it takes is some probing around
> when the feeder is empty, which may happen to draw your attention.
> You fill the feeder, and the bird's powerful "Pavlov" instinct says
> "try that behaviour again." If it works twice, they'll keep at it.
>
> If you stop responding, the association would be exinguished after a
> while.
I have a tame (wild) scrub jay with whom I've interacted for several
years, and as great as he is, it's clear that he doesn't have a great
deal of reasoning capability.
For example, another scubber, slightly more dominant will chase him away
from the window. This other scrubber won't come closer than four feet
from me while Sir Bird will sit on my hand an select the best peanut
from the batch. If the dominant bird screeches loud at Sir Bird while he
is close to me, Sir Bird will fly off. Yet he should know that the other
bird will not come near him if he is with me. I left the garage door
open once, and Sir Bird opened a plastic sack of peanuts (by pecking a
hole) he then proceeded to hide the peanuts INSIDE the garage among my
tools. He clearly didn't recall that the garage isn't open all that
much. It's not related to intelligence, I guess, but when Sir Bird lands
on my hand, he has to give my fingers several hard pecks before settling
down to evaluating the peanuts. I guess he's tryint to show dominance
over me. Finally, when the dominant bird gets to the peanut pile, he
doesn't root through them to select the best one but exchanges them
until he can get two into his beak. OTOH, Sir Bird will take each
peanut and shake it (to hear the rattle) before picking one. Since he
will come right back for the remainder and take them all, unless chased
away, it's not clear why he goes to so much selection trouble.
Cheers
Richard
Jack W. Crenshaw
Richard Talley wrote:
>
> ... It's not related to intelligence, I guess, but when Sir Bird lands
> on my hand, he has to give my fingers several hard pecks before settling
> down to evaluating the peanuts. I guess he's tryint to show dominance
> over me.
Nah, nothing that complex. Bluejays just like to peck at things. It
feels good. They particularly enjoy pecking at things that seem to move.
If you want to _REALLY_ see Sir Bird enjoy himself, give him a turn at
your TV remote <g>.
One of my non-releasables fell in love with the CDROM eject button on my
computer. She was thrilled by the power she had to made the little
drawer open.
She also fell in love with the _RESET_ button, which I had to disable
<g>.
Jack
Wakerobin
>Jack
---------------------
Blue Jays are a real riot. They are incredibly curious and will peck
things to find out what they are made of. They like to explore and
want to know about everything in their environment. I had a
non-releasable for 15 years. He collected everything that attracted
him especially coins and jewelry and hid it, just as wild jays stash
food. I always had peanuts in my shoes, and coins under the rugs.
For the last five years of his life, he was joined by a non-releasable
female. They worked in cahoots. She could fly just enough to get up
on a desk. She's get up there, pick pennies out of a jar, throw
them down to him, and he'd drop them down the heat register.
BTW, he asserted his dominance by crest-raising, an open beak stare,
and various display postures.
--Carroll
using antispam address--to reply, use this one: mcr...@fdldotnet.com
Jack W. Crenshaw
Wakerobin wrote:
>
> Blue Jays are a real riot. They are incredibly curious and will peck
> things to find out what they are made of. They like to explore and
> want to know about everything in their environment. I had a
> non-releasable for 15 years. He collected everything that attracted
> him especially coins and jewelry and hid it, just as wild jays stash
> food. I always had peanuts in my shoes, and coins under the rugs.
> For the last five years of his life, he was joined by a non-releasable
> female. They worked in cahoots. She could fly just enough to get up
> on a desk. She's get up there, pick pennies out of a jar, throw
> them down to him, and he'd drop them down the heat register.
>
> BTW, he asserted his dominance by crest-raising, an open beak stare,
> and various display postures.
>
You're very fortunate. I had a non-releasable for only two years, and
he was a real love. He ate something that got stuck in his crop, and
died. But while we had him, he was the center of our lives, literally
(at least at home). Like yours, he had a thing for anything shiny. He
loved to steal the chrome tops off my mechanical pencils. He couldn't
pull them off directly, but I had a practice of pulling them off with my
teeth, to erase something, and then put them back on again. He observed
this practice, and figured out that once the little cap was between my
teeth, it was _HIS_. After losing a couple this way, I learned to check
where he was before I pulled the cap off. But one day, I looked around,
saw him nowhere, and pulled the cap off with me teeth. Suddenly, there
was a blue blur, and _WHAM_! The cap was gone.
I found a few under the couch cushions, etc., but to this day (almost
ten years later) I still have pencils with no caps. <g>
We built a (_VERY_ large) cage for him. In the evenings and weekends,
he was allowed to fly around, but during the day, when we were both at
work, he had to stay in the cage. I had included, in the design, a
little door for letting him in & out, but it proved to be not much
value, except as an escape hatch for Jay. I had mounted one of those
turn-type latches, like you use for medicine cabinets. But he found
that by pecking in the crack of the door, he could jiggle the latch
loose and escape. Once he got the latch undone, he'd fly at the door
feet first, and force it open. We'd come home to find him happily
flitting about the house.
I decided to get a miniature hasp, of the kind you use to padlock
things. Even got a tiny padlock, but then thought this was a bit much,
and we'd be forever searching for the key. So I cast about for
something like a stick, to stick in the hasp to hold it, and finally
settled on a golf tee. Sure enough, this worked; Jay couldn't reach the
tee from inside the cage.
Two days later, though, we came home to find the door open, and the bird
happily flitting about the house again. It seems that he had figured
out that the tee was his problem, so the previous night he simply stole
it and hid it. He rightly guessed that, as long as the door stayed
shut, we wouldn't notice that it was no longer locked. He simply waited
until we left for work, then opened the door <grin>.
Jack