Learned something new today

I watched blue jays kill chickadees at my feeder before


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Predators eating our young.

 

Seagull = flying rat
Bluejay = flying bullhead catfish; they would try to kill you if they were just a little bigger

 

Something else interesting about blue jays, they are capable of mimicry just like other corvids. In captivity they can be taught to "talk" in much the same way as other birds. In the wild, they tend to mimic other birds, like hawks for instance. They're so good at it, it's very hard to distinguish between a hawk call and a blue jay doing it himself. Hawks prey on blue jays so they use the hawk call for 2 reasons, first one is a test to see if a hawk is in the area, as hawks will call back and forth to each other. Second is to scare other birds away from nests and food sources. Pretty damn smart little evil sons of britches.

 

I've heard them doing the hawk call many times.

 

That is one way mother nature can interact with a species, disease is another.

 

Seen a robin move aggressively toward a blue jay yesterday that was on the ground. Chasing it off and keeping it away from the nest.

 

Yep, Blue Jays are basically a smaller, more brightly colored crow.

 

Yep.

I've also seen crows catch and eat live mice.

 

I have a few times. Jays like to nest in my neighbor's tree. Just behind us is a large field with a lot of hawks that feed on the many ground critters, see them picking off rabbits and squirrels often. The robins will gang up on the one or two Jays that harass them, but sometimes it's one on one and the robin doesn't even make an attempt, just flies away.

 

I've spent a lot of time living outside of the U. P., and blue jays were common at feeders there. What I don't understand is that up here I only see them in the woods, and never at feeders. Sort of the opposite of grey squirrels and cotton tails up here.

 

Saw this and thought it might be applicable

 

Or my Yellow Lab

 

...but labs are such "nice" dogs.

 

Mine

Mine isn’t fond of rabbits. She even killed one on Easter Sunday