3:27 AM – The young Red-bellied Woodpecker at the mealworm feeder. His crest gets a little redder every day.
Bluebird with unusual markings.
Blue Jay after being caught in the rain.
Tag Archives: Blue jays
Friday – 8.4.2017
4:39 AM – This is clearly the season for young birds. I think this one is a juvenile Blue Jay, based on his size and indistinct color and pattern of feathers. We’re new to back yard bird watching, and we’re still learning about these things. We have seen plenty of juvenile Bluebirds, but this is really the first Jay that I’m pretty sure is a young one.
The Red-bellied Woodpecker doesn’t do much platform feeding, but this young one stopped by for a few minutes. Note that the top of his head is getting a little red.
The little Carolina Chickadee probably got it’s feathers ruffled in a rain shower that passed through that afternoon. He’s so small, with a tiny beak, that he has to break the mealworms apart to eat them. We like chickadees.
Tuesday – 8.1.2017
2:48 AM – Blue Jay and a Brown Thrasher spar at the platform feeder. Notice that the first Jay flies off when the Thrasher swoops in, and is replaced by another one immediately. The video ends with the Jay in the feeder, and the Thrasher looking on, probably ready for a fight.
As if the Jays didn’t have enough squabbling with the Doves and Thrashers, every now and then they like to mix it up among themselves.
No doubt in my mind that this Cardinal is ready for molting season to end. He looks like a thatched roof.
Friday – 7.28.2017
4:49 AM – This platform feeder drama went on for almost six minutes. Two doves versus one Blue Jay, for control of the bird seed. At one point they tried sharing, each pecking up some seed. One dove flew off, and the other moved in to take his place. Eventual he went for the Blue Jay. The Jay, however, didn’t fly away. He just retreated a few feet along the rail and kept on staring. Then he advance to the water and the Dove broke, and flew off. It was interesting , but I doubt anything was permanently settled.
The new suet we’re using is very popular with the customers, drawing birds that don’t ordinarily feed at the suet cage. I like these two videos (combined) because the show the difference between the biggest and smallest suet fans, a Red-bellied Woodpecker and a Carolina Chickadee.
At first I thought this might be the first Blue Jay visitor to the suet cage. but it turns out there were two other visits filmed. Still a rare event though. This one looks like an immature one.
Wednesday – 7.26.2017
5:24 AM – This bluebird collects a beak-full of mealworms to take back to the nest.
Cardinals don’t usually come around the suet feeder, but lately we’ve seen them a lot. Maybe they developed a taste for the pepper suet while the mealworm feeder was out of commission. Anyway, here’s one sharing the feeder with a Downy Woodpecker.
We don’t often see two Blue Jays on a feeder at the same time. Bluebirds, yes. They run in a pack (or small flock) of two or three. But not the Jays.
Monday – 7.24.2017
3:52 AM – The Mourning Doves are now the most frequent visitor to the open platform feeders, and it looks like they’re feeling possessive. This one sure doesn’t want Blue Jays hanging around.
Since the cylinder suet cage is back in action, we’ve been getting a steady stream of bird customers (and a couple of attempts by squirrels). These were there over the last few days: Downy Woodpecker,White Breasted Nuthatch, Bluebird, Cardinal, Carolina Chickadee and Red-bellied Woodpecker. The Cardinal is new to the suet feeder, probably because the mealworm feeder wasn’t up that day. Same for the bluebird with the attractive pattern of back feathers.
Here’s that squirrel we mentioned. He takes a good sniff and decided to have lunch somewhere else. We really like pepper suet.
Saturday – 7.22.2017
7:31 AM – This is a new one for us, a bald-headed Blue Jay. No feathers, no crest. Presumably, he’s molting.
Yesterday we had a clip of a bluebird declining to eat from the suet cylinder. Later, after the cylinder had been pecked at a good bit, and there were crumbs in the tray, it was a different story. Evidently the bluebird does like suet, he just doesn’t want to peck it out of the cylinder.
It looks like we have a third generation of bluebirds in the yard. The one on the right still has trouble perching, and his feathers don’t have much color. The other one is either first or second generation, it’s getting hard to tell them apart.
Sunday – 7.16.2017
4:28 AM – It’s another Retro-Sunday.
This is from April 12, 2017. This Blue Jay keeps coming and going, stopping just long enough to grab a seed. The Jays that visit now will stay for at least a minute (that’s how long the camera records before shutting off). They sit right in the feeder, eating. I wonder why the change.
We haven’t had much success with hummingbirds. We got a few, then they’d disappear, and all we had was ants in the feeder. We’re waiting until later in the summer to put the feeders back up. Never give up on hummingbirds, every twitcher knows that.
This video was recorded on April 10, 2017, back when the Cardinals were showing mating and chick-raising behavior every day. We don’t see that now, but I expect we will eventually.
Thursday – 7.13.2017
5:07 AM – All of our cameras have been out of commission for the last few days, for one reason or another. That means no recent videos. Instead, here’s a special Thursday edition of our regular Sunday “Greatest Hits” posting.
Here’s a weird video of a Blue Jay celebrating the ousting of another Jay from the birdbath, with a hopping dance. From April 29, 2017.
A Yellow-rumped Warbler and a bluebird at the mealworm feeder, from April 15, 2017. We haven’t seen the warblers for a few months now.
From April 12, 2017, a Purple Finch feeding an immature finch. Actually, that might be a House Finch, the color reproduction of these videos isn’t always right on target, so it might be purple, might be red.
Friday – 7.7.2017
4:44 AM – The color of these Blue Jays is really amazing.
The mealworm feeder was down to zero worms this morning. After we restocked it, the birds came from everywhere. How can they eat so much? I guess they use a lot of energy flying. Here we have a Chickadee, a Carolina Wren and a bluebird.
This young House Finch sits on our camera for a few moments. This is how they (the cameras) get knocked to the ground. That’s actually not true – it’s always the bad boys of the yard, the squirrels and raccoons who do it.