General: Blue Jays are a famous wild bird species with a reputation for mischievousness. They’re part of the Corvidae family and as such, are related to crows and ravens. Did you know that their blue markings are not the result of pigmentation? Instead, the color comes from the way light refracts through the internal structure of their feathers. This so-called structural coloration is common in blue bird feathers. Another distinctive Blue Jay feature is its crest. An agitated Blue jay will ruffle up its crest, but when it feels calm and ready to feed it’ll let it rest flat against the top of its head.

Diet: Blue Jays enjoy a varied diet. They’ll feed from the ground, trees and bushes. Blue Jays will eat almost anything they can get their beaks on, but a diet of seeds and fruit is especially nutritious. Our Ultimate Variety and Dutch’s Deluxe are excellent picks if you want to attract Blue Jays. Super Sunflower provides shelled sunflowers they particularly enjoy due to how easy they are to eat. They’ll come to any feeder that looks like it’s protected from predators. Jays will often store food in their nests against lean times but if you keep a well-stocked bird feeder they prefer to just visit regularly. Even a well-fed Blue Jay will take bigger and harder seeds away to eat in private, but don’t worry — they’ll be back soon. If you don’t want them to go, try bird foods with hulled (shelled) seeds.

Environment: Blue Jays are slow in the air, so they like to fly under light cover to avoid predatory birds. They don’t like thick woods though, and they’ve adapted well to human backyards and parks. The species ranges across a huge territory that extends from Florida to Northern Ontario, Canada.

Behavior: Blue Jays are known for their intelligence and assertiveness. They’ve even been known to harass owls until they move away! In these situations, Jays work together to annoy the predator. They’re playful birds that are attracted to shiny objects; sometimes, they’ll even snatch them from human hands. Blue Jays use a wide variety of calls. Some of them call other Jays to help mob a predator. Others are simple squaks or quiet calls they use to talk to each other. Like other corvids, Blue Jays that spend time around humans can learn specific calls to beg for food — and a few have even been trained to mimic human speech.

Blue Jays are not picky about where they nest. When their mating season starts in mid-March they’ll claim any comfortable, safe place they can find. Blue Jays have a reputation for stealing other birds’ nests, but for the most part they only do this with abandoned ones; only a minority kicks eggs out of a busy nest to take up residence. Blue Jays mate in monogamous pairs; a pair usually stays together for life.

The Cornell University Ornithology Lab’s All About Birds website is packed full of scientifically sound information about wild birds. There are lots of ornithology labs around the country, of course, but Cornell is one of the few that includes tips for attracting birds to your backyard.

One of the areas that interest us most is the section on seed preferences for different wild birds. The page at the link discusses the types of birds that go for various seeds. Here’s a guide to selecting our wild bird food products by seed:

Millet: We offer for wild bird foods that feature sparrow-attracting millet. Try Ultimate Variety, Superior Seeds, Berry and our traditional Dutch’s Deluxe.

Safflower: Get Dutch’s Deluxe, Superior Seeds and Ultimate Variety. As Cornell’s researchers note, safflower is noted for its ability to attract cardinals.

Nyjer: Nyjer’s appeal to finches is so remarkable that we wrote an article about it. You can purchase Gold Nyjer alone or as part of our premium Dutch’s Deluxe mix.

Sunflower: Sunflower is well known as the most attractive seed for a wide variety of birds. While we offer Super Sunflower for people who want nothing else, all of our feed mixes except for our pure Nyjer offerings contain it. We also offer Sunflower Blend Suet Plus for birds with more varied diets. Our mixes include hulled (shelled) seeds that smaller birds find easier to eat and which reduces the mess wild birds leave behind.

Peanuts: Wrens, woodpeckers, cardinals and jays are among the species that love this high energy "seed." Check out Ultimate Variety and our Peanut Blend Bird Food to add it to your backyard birds’ diets.

Corn: Our Ultimate Variety food contains cracked corn, which is popular with blackbirds, finches and sparrows.

Remember, if you need a quick reference by species you can also check out our color-coded Bird Feeding Chart.

Way back in the test post for this blog, I got questions about backyard bird eggs, feeders and squirrels. So:

Hi Donna!

Robins can lay green eggs as well. Many wild birds from the passerine order (which encompasses about half of all bird species) lay pigmented eggs. The natural pigment biliverdin is responsible for both blue and green egg coloration. That egg could be anything, but if it was found near the nest, chances are it’s a robin’s egg that formed a little differently than the rest.

Hi Mar!

You are not alone in trying to keep squirrels from eating our of your wild bird feeder! I’ve had some sucess with the weighted system wild bird feeder.  When the squirrel hits the feeder, the feeding ports close. You can also distract squirrels with corn or another cost-effective feed some distance from your bird feeder.

I’m not familiar with the "ZAPshield" system but I am interested in other people’s squirrel-rpoofing tactics! Let me know what works for you (or doesn’t). If you want to talk about a specific brand, please email me instead of posting in blog comments.

Thanks!

Richard