You can call me jay

They call bluejays bully birds, which is the category for birds that hog all the seed and drive other birds away from the feeders.

Basically—squirrels with wings.

Anyway, I have not found that to be the case with the jays that visit my back yard. These guys seem to get along with other bird varieties, take their turn and generally seem to be pretty good neighbors.

There was actually one time—after I’d tossed out a couple of fistfuls of seed—when I watched a bluejay get chased repeatedly away from the (plentiful) birdseed by a mourning dove. The dove would go after the jay; the jay would move away and then approach a different quadrant of seed; the dove would hustle the jay away again. That dove was just not having it.

Here’s an example of a bluejay living in comity with a cardinal, each minding his own business and neither fussed by the other.

Would that Americans could be more like the bluejays.

 

©2024 Bas Bleu