Stellars Jays

The Jays love to hide peanuts every bit as much as the squirrels do. It sometimes surprises us that this climate is conducive to the raising of peanut plants as we use bird grade peanuts, rather than human grade.

Mine!

No, you can't share, get your own......

When you watch the Jays picking up peanuts, they will try several before deciding on one, basically because they have to have managed to pick it up in a manner that will allow them to fly with the peanut securely in their beaks. They are often distracted by the size of another peanut once they get one in their mouths, and will try that one out before possibly going back to the one that worked better. This can be a long, complex process for a small brain.

One small entertainment at times is watching to see how many peanuts make it down that throat. Maximum record I have seen is three small whole peanuts, but it is common for them to take two. In this picture, (below), the Jay was bringing one peanut back up to bury in the flower pot.