Naughty or Nice?

A friend of mine gave me a bag of 'Premium' bird seed as an early Christmas gift.  So our birds are getting a little spoiled for the holidays!  The mix includes shelled sunflower seeds as well as various nuts.  I've been doling it out slowly, and the Blue Jays are really enjoying the peanuts.

Blue Jays -- are they naughty or nice?  They have a reputation which includes such things as being thieves and gluttons.  The one in the following photos certainly did appear to be a greedy glutton, as you will see!

 

I can't say if this Blue Jay is a he or she, because both sexes look alike.  For the sake of this story,  I'm going to call it Jay and say he's a boy.

Jay had his eye on the peanuts I had just put out, and he wanted them all! 

Blue Jays can carry food in their throat and upper esophagus (sometimes called a gular pouch).  They've been known to fit 5 acorns (yes, acorns!) in their throat and bill at one time!

 Jay, however, didn't quite have it all under control.  He had picked up a couple of nuts when something startled him.

And there goes a peanut.... flying away.

He got things back under control though, and managed to pick up the rest of the peanuts.  I don't know how many, but he was loaded to the tip of his bill, for sure!

He flew off to cache them somewhere to eat later.  Jays belong to the Corvid family along with Crows and Ravens; and they are some of the smartest of birds.  Getting back to the "naughty or nice" question, I'd say "neither".   They are just doing what Blue Jays do.  If they are equipped to carry food away and save it for later, and they are smart enough to do it, then that's okay with me.  And I enjoy watching their antics while they do it.

Jay even came back for more... once the peanuts were gone, he was satisfied with sunflower meats.

While most of the photographs I include on my blog posts involve a fair amount of time-- getting just the right shots, this story took only 6 minutes from the beginning to ending photo.  

I hope you enjoyed watching Jay's antics as much as I did.  While not my favorite birds, I do admire Blue Jays for their beauty and intelligence.  So, actually... I guess they have to go on my 'nice' list.