There are a couple Blue Jays around my apartment.

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Sweetleaf
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10 May 2021, 12:23 am

There are two of them that seem to interact together, so I assume it is a mating pair that have a nest in one of the trees around here. Also seems they like walnuts, I have been giving the squirrels walnuts...dropping them off my porch where they can see them. Lol there was one squirrel today that came up and seemed like it was trying to be all cute to get me to drop a walnut...it sorta stood on its hind legs making a reaching gesture while looking at me I mean I would have given one anyways but I thought it was kinda funny.

But yeah I guess the Blue Jays have figured out about the walnuts to and so today they came and hung out in the trees near our porch and also went after some of the walnuts we dropped for the squirrels. So I am thinking of putting like a tray feeder out with some nuts and things they eat on the patio. I also kind of hope perhaps it will distract them a bit from taking the walnuts we drop to the ground for the squirrels.

I think it is kinda cool, and I sorta was missing the crows at my old apartment...but Blue Jays are also Corvids so they have some of the same sort of intelligence as crows and are quite fascinating to watch to. Also though seems blue jays are more common further east and not so common as far west as I am so seems it's also a bit of a rarity to see them here. At least based on looking up some info about them on the internet.


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Sweetleaf
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10 May 2021, 12:28 am

Uhh I meant to post this in random discussion...! reported it to ask the mods to move it so hopefully it will be moved to the appropriate section.


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magz
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10 May 2021, 12:35 am

Done :)
Yes, you used the "report" button as intended :)

I had to google blue jays - wow, they are pretty! And jays are generally smart. Next to my brother's workplace, a cat got stuck on a tree, meowing until his rescue - and for the next couple of weeks, the local jays meowed to scare away other birds :lol:


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Sweetleaf
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10 May 2021, 12:49 am

magz wrote:
Done :)
Yes, you used the "report" button as intended :)

I had to google blue jays - wow, they are pretty! And jays are generally smart. Next to my brother's workplace, a cat got stuck on a tree, meowing until his rescue - and for the next couple of weeks, the local jays meowed to scare away other birds :lol:


That is pretty cool, I have heard they can also imitate hawk calls sometimes they do it to warn of an actual hawk. But some sources claim they also occasionally do it just to scare away other birds and animals that might compete with them for food. So yeah I suppose it makes sense they could imitate a cat as well just kinda clever they figure if they make the sound of a potential predator they can use that to scare other animals away from the food they are after.

But yeah they are really pretty, with those bright blue feathers.


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naturalplastic
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10 May 2021, 1:55 am

Which kind?

In Denver you live right on the boundary line between the ranges of both of the two kinds of blue jays. The regular eastern kind (the emblem of the Toronto Blue Jays), and the western Stellar's blue jays (which have black heads).



Sweetleaf
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10 May 2021, 2:36 am

naturalplastic wrote:
Which kind?

In Denver you live right on the boundary line between the ranges of both of the two kinds of blue jays. The regular eastern kind (the emblem of the Toronto Blue Jays), and the western Stellar's blue jays (which have black heads).


Well just moved to Fort Collins which is a bit north-west of Denver around an hour away. And they are definitely blue jays and not stellars Jays, I used to see a bunch of the stellars jays in the mountains and yeah for sure these are blue jays they got the bright blue feathers and tufts with a lighter underbelly, the steller's jays were like all blue aside from their black head and a darker blue than the blue jays.

Also did not know anyone called the steller's jays blue jays, that is interesting and probably causes some confusion. I mean I guess in a way the stellers jays are blue jays because they are jays and they are blue...but yeah the blue jay is quite distinctive from the steller's jay but both are blue. But yeah from some habitat maps I looked at they generally are not found this far west but nonetheless there are at least two around here.


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naturalplastic
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10 May 2021, 6:44 pm

Your probably right that most folks nowadays just call em steller's jays, without the word blue. But mom grew up in Colorado Springs in the Thirties, and would talk about "eastern blue jays, and western blue jays". :)



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10 May 2021, 6:52 pm

I was watching the birds at the feeders at the arboretum last week, and I heard two blue jays making goose noises. Sometimes it would veer toward the typical blue jay call, but for a minute or so I was looking around trying to spot the geese :lol:


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kitesandtrainsandcats
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10 May 2021, 10:25 pm

Some neat stuff here. I hadn't known about the 2 different regional breeds of jays.


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