Jays - getting more bold?

Hello Rivelino and welcome. Our garden adjoins to a wood and I know there are jays in there but we only see the odd one in our garden from time to time. As far as I know they prefer woodland so lucky you to see six in your garden.  

Hi Rivelino, welcome to the forum.

I think you are right jays are quite shy and will fly off at the smallest of sounds or movement.  I however have two that visit our garden daily.  They like to come in for the monkey nuts that I have in a plant pot tied to a tree.  In the summer they bought their offspring with them as well which  was quite funny to watch them trying to copy mum and dad as they fed from the pot.  Now the offspring have flown and we are back to just the adults.  I do like watching them, they are also getting used to us being nearby so don't fly away when we appear.  Never seen 6 though at any one time! just the parents and two offspring is the most I've seen.  We have a small wood nearby so think that's where they come from.

Hello Rivelino and welcome from me.

I have never seen a jay I'm sad to say. I don't know why because we have a lot of old oak trees in the near vicinity with plenty of acorns. I would like to attract some jays to my garden.

Kezmo - you say you leave out monkey nuts. I am always uncertain what people mean by monkey nuts. I was brought up to believe they were peanuts still inside the pod, rather than the round peanuts we put in feeders.

Should I be putting out whole peanuts not inside a feeder? I thought we were supposed to avoid whole peanuts apart from in feeders. I am getting very confused!!! (it isn't difficult to confuse me)

Hi Sparrow

People may say I'm wrong to do it, but I started putting monkey nuts out (whole peanuts still in their husks) for the two squirrels that we get but the jays also love to take them.   Free whole peanuts should always be fed from a peanut feeder especially during the breeding months.  Mainly because inexperienced birds could try to feed these to their young (tits mainly) and this is obviously a choking hazard.  If I run out of monkey nuts then I crush up the whole ones (you know the rolling pin and bag theme!!).  Hope this helps.

Hi Kezmo,

Thanks. I will try some monkey nuts in a plant pot and see what happens. I suspect my regular jackdaws will take them before any jays get a look in. Can you believe I actually had a huge jackdaw clinging to my peanut feeder this morning? I was worried he would get his massive claws stuck but he managed quite well.

By the way, I gave up on the rolling pin and bag when I discovered our local pet food shop sells ready to use crushed peanuts (minus the brown skins) for only 10p dearer than the whole nut for a similar size bag. The extra 10p is well worth it if only to avoid redecorating the kitchen walls!!!!

Hi Sparrow,

Totally agree with you, they obvioulsy have a bigger rolling pin and if someone else is doing it and saves you the trouble I'm all for it.  There is a farm shop nearby that sells the same thing but I was put off when I saw a couple of their bags of sunflower hearts that were 6 months out of date so now I don't buy from there just in case the nuts aren't that fresh.

Jackdaws probably would take them to be honest.  We had a couple last year during the winter but they never found the plant pot.  They were always really skittish in the garden so don't think they were used to visiting gardens - probably just came in to see what all the others were doing.  I get an awful lot of collard doves which must make for an interesting sight when looking down from above.  They used the ground feeder a bit but were so jumpy they could never settle enough to eat.

Have to warn you though about monkey nuts, the down side is that if you also attract a squirrel they will bury them all over the garden, come spring you'll have peanut plants sprouting all around.

Rivelino - ooops sorry we're highjacking your thread. Back to jays.  What colourful birds to watch.................when eating monkey nuts!!

Sorry Rivelino, it was my fault for getting sidetracked.

You are lucky to have had some jays, and I hope they continue to visit your garden.

Hi All

Jays can be very elusive, despite being pink with a bright blue wing flash! They are very difficult to see in the tree canopy. However, during late summer and autumn they seem to change tactics, instead of being the secretive bird of the canopy they spend much more time at ground level, which gives us all a chance to admire them.

Most of them remain alert and very prone to flying away, usually just when you have them in focus whilst trying to get a picture! However, some of them do seem almost cocky and are quite happy in fairly close proximity to humans, however, step just that bit too close and off they will go.

The jay is a great mimic, i've heard them doing a fantastic buzzard 'mew' from the shelter of an oak tree, anyone else witnessed this behaviour?

IanH