I’m going to start a small series of posts about our “little friends”, and thought I’d start with one about our favourite.
Stellar’s Jays are very beautiful birds with a blue back and a high crest. And – they are very clever! We have a couple (a male and a female) which regularly come to feed on our balcony. They like the seeds in the tray with the other birds, but they lovepeanuts and suet, and I’m using their greed to train them! They’re such clever birds! I’ve already got them to know when I’m home (they’ll look in both windows, coming right up to the glass), and tap on the glass for a peanut. I haven’t got them eating from my hand yet, but I’m getting closer all the time! Normally suet cages are out of reach for the Jay’s (they’re just not built for hanging!), but these ones got the taste from the crumbs dropped by other birds, and after many a hapless attempt to jump’n'peck, have now got the knack of jumping up from the railing, hanging on for a few seconds while pecking off a few bits of suet for themselves!
Just now one was outside the window making a hell of a racket – “Squaaak! Squaaaak!” When I went out to look, two cats were prowling by – sounds like the Jay is the local cat alarm too!
May 20th, 2009 at 01:22
Awsome (to say it in Canadian
)!
My degus would do just about anything, too, for a peanut.