Steller’s jays showing up at bird feeders. Have you seen them?

“Hey, I’ve got a Steller’s jay in my yard,” a friend called me on Monday last week. I hurried over, but it was gone by the time I got there. “He left our place and went over to the neighbors but didn’t stay there long either.”

During the snowstorm on Tuesday, a pair of Steller’s showed up at my place long enough to steal some seeds stashed by some Black-capped chickadee before heading to the Teton River bottoms. On Thursday, another neighbor asked me, “Are Steller’s jays rare around here, my daughter saw two this week and found some dead baby birds under a tree; do they raid nests?”

I told him that I did not think that they would raid nests because I had never seen them do it. I was wrong; Steller’s do raid nests. We usually observe them in the fall and winter after most songbirds have migrated south and are long past their nesting season. But with the recent infestation of the Eurasian-collared doves, that is not the case anymore.

The collared doves can breed year around with the female sitting on the nest during the night while the male incubates the eggs during the day. The aggressive Steller’s may have chased off the male and destroyed their nest, but that is only a guess; no one saw it happen.

This fall we have seen an abundance of Steller’s jays in the Snake River Valley. I have had seven reports of them at homes that have put out sunflower seeds. I have had them at my feeders three times and have seen them at Beaver Dick Park west of Rexburg and at Camas National Wildlife Refuge. With the lack of snow, they seem to be very nomadic and not yet settling into a holding pattern. Two years ago, I had one stay in my backyard for about a month and I hope that will happen again.

They are a beautiful addition to any yard and are extremely mischievous, but rather noisy. Once they find your backyard inviting, it doesn’t take them long to start cackling about it, they are masters of mimicking, and they use it for they advantage. They can sound like cats, dogs, hawks, and even mechanical machines. If the feeders are full of birds, they will give a call of a Red-tailed hawk, and all the other birds will head for cover while they get the feeders for themselves.

While I was writing this article, I heard one call. When I went outside, it was in a mature hybrid poplar raiding the sunflower seeds that the chickadees had hidden in the crevasses in the bark. The feeders were full, but it was stealing from their hiding places – just being a bully!! They also cache seeds, and I am sure the chickadees and nuthatches steal those seeds. They also like to feed on suet cakes, but they love feeders with peanuts and will battle Downy and Hairy woodpecker over them.

If you want some entertaining birds in your back yard this winter, get your feeders out while jays, flickers, chickadees and goldfinches are looking for a place to winter in. Keep the feeders full and they will show up.

By the way, the large wildlife are migrating and the deer rut is starting, so be careful while driving; buck deer forget to look both ways before chasing a doe across the road.

Have a great week.