Blue jays are a common sight around backyard bird feeders across North America. With their bright blue feathers and raucous calls, these striking birds often attract attention. But are blue jays friendly to humans, or are they aggressive bullies chasing off smaller birds at the feeder as their reputation suggests?
If you’re short on time, here’s a quick answer to your question: blue jays have a complex relationship with humans and other birds. They can seem aggressive and territorial, especially around food, but blue jays are also highly intelligent, family-oriented birds that mate for life and can be very playful.
Blue Jay Behavior and Nature
Social Structure and Nesting
Blue jays are highly social and intelligent birds that live in small flocks of 5-10 birds. They have complex social hierarchies and often mate for life (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue_Jay). Blue jays build their nests high up in trees, typically 10-25 feet above the ground.
The female builds the nest out of twigs, grass, moss, bark, and other materials while the male defends the territory. She lays around 4-5 eggs and incubates them for 17-18 days. Both parents feed the hatchlings for 2-3 weeks until they fledge.
Intelligence and Problem Solving Abilities
Blue jays have a reputation for being highly intelligent and innovative birds. Their brain-to-body ratio is equal to that of chimpanzees and crows (https://www.audubon.org/news/are-blue-jays-just-bullies-or-do-they-have-redeeming-qualities).
They are known for their ability to mimic hawk calls to scare away other birds from food sources. Blue jays often use tools to obtain food – dropping nuts onto hard surfaces to crack them open. Researchers have discovered that jays can plan ahead by storing food to eat later, exhibiting episodic memory (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-do-blue-jays-reveal-about-the-avian-brain/).
Their cognitive capacities likely aid their survival and dominance at bird feeders.
Blue Jays as Bullies at the Bird Feeders
Blue jays have gained a reputation for being aggressive around bird feeders. Their size, intelligence, and social nature give them an advantage over smaller birds. Jays may swoop in and take over feeders, scaring away chickadees, nuthatches and even squirrels in their pursuit of peanuts and sunflower seeds.
This behavior leads people to see them as bullies. However, blue jays are simply adapting their social dominance and opportunistic feeding strategy to take advantage of convenient food sources (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/are-blue-jays-bullies/).
While their aggressive feeding habits appear as bullying to us, they are just a natural extension of the jay’s survival instincts and skills.
Interactions with Humans
Feeding Blue Jays in Your Yard
Blue jays are highly intelligent birds that can become quite comfortable around humans, especially if you feed them. Offering peanuts, sunflower seeds, suet cakes, cracked corn, and mealworms is a great way to attract blue jays to your yard.
Once they find a reliable food source, the same blue jays may return day after day. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, overwinter survival rates for blue jays increase when they have access to feeders stocked with nutritious foods.
However, it’s important not to overfeed blue jays. Too much food can lead to dependency as well as increased aggression toward other birds. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recommends setting up feeders in multiple locations around your yard to reduce competition.
Having a water source available, such as a birdbath, can also help minimize aggressive behavior.
Potential Aggression Toward People
While blue jays are typically not aggressive toward humans, their natural behaviors during nesting season can occasionally cause conflicts. According to The Spruce, when raising young, blue jay parents may become territorial and dive-bomb or peck at humans that get too close to the nest.
Such attacks are simply defensive maneuvers due to a drive to protect baby birds, rather than actual aggression.
The good news is that nesting season is relatively short, spanning late April through July depending on your location. Blue jays usually build nests 10-25 feet high in dense thickets of shrubs or trees, so avoiding areas of dense vegetation can help prevent surprise attacks by protective parents during this time.
Leaving ample space around known blue jay nests and walking detours is the smartest strategy.
Forming Positive Connections
With a little patience, blue jays in your neighborhood can become treasured wild friends. The key is to start any human-bird relationships slowly and with sensitivity. Take time simply observing their behaviors and allowing jays to become comfortable in your presence from a distance before attempting closer interactions.
Offering enticing foods can encourage blue jays to associate your yard and even you personally with positive rewards. However, avoid pushing your presence when jays show signals like ruffled feathers or distress calls indicating fear.
Building trust requires demonstrating consistent respect of blue jays’ boundaries over time before attempting steps like hand-feeding.
According to Audubon, some individual jays become so comfortable around attentive humans that they happily eat from palms and perch on hands or shoulders. However developing such personal bonds depends largely on a bird’s unique personality and early positive experiences with people.
The most reliable way to befriend wild blue jays is through patience and offering delightful culinary surprises.
Coexisting with Blue Jays in Your Yard
Providing Appropriate Food and Shelter
Blue jays enjoy eating peanuts, sunflower seeds, suet, cracked corn, and fruit like cherries or apples. Consider setting up bird feeders in your yard with these food sources to attract blue jays (Audubon). Just be sure not to overload your feeders, as rotting food can spread diseases.
It’s best to offer food in more enclosed feeders that provide shelter from the elements as well.
In addition to feeders, blue jays may nest in conifers, dense bushes, or old cavities in trees in the springtime. You can construct and mount nesting boxes specifically sized for blue jays to provide them sheltered nesting spots (NestWatch).
Just be sure to clean them out each year after nesting season ends.
Deterring Aggressive Behavior
Blue jays are highly territorial and may chase other birds away from feeders aggressively. To help curb bullying, offer food in multiple locations around your yard to minimize squabbles. Platform feeders allow less dominant birds quick escape routes as well.
Installing a squirrel baffle can also help since blue jays and squirrels compete for the same foods (The Old Farmer’s Almanac).
In spring, blue jays vigorously defend their nest sites from predators and competitors. It’s best not to get too close to an active nest, as the parents may dive bomb or otherwise harass perceived threats. Simply avoiding the direct nest area can allow blue jays to settle down (All About Birds).
Enjoying Their Beauty and Personality
With their crested heads and brilliant blue, white, and black plumage, blue jays are undoubtedly gorgeous birds. Their throaty, gabbling voices announce their arrival as they flit through yards as well.
Blue jays have quite the personality—they are inquisitive, social, adaptable, and even mischievous at times! Whether cracking open acorns or bathing in puddles, their antics can provide endless entertainment.
You’re likely to spot blue jays year-round in much of the eastern and central US. Take a moment to appreciate these striking birds that frequent backyards. Learning to coexist mutually with blue jays allows you to reap nature’s beauty right outside your door!
Conclusion
Blue jays have a reputation for aggression that is not entirely undeserved – they can bully smaller birds and even occasionally humans when defending territory or food sources. However, these intelligent, family-oriented jays have complex behaviors and plenty of capacity for positive interactions with people too.
By understanding their nature, providing adequate resources, and respecting their boundaries, we can peacefully and enjoyably coexist with blue jays in our yards and neighborhoods.
