One of my favorite and most selfish reasons for attracting wildlife to my yard is because during the winters, when my plants are dormant or have died back, and I am going into gardening withdrawal, I still enjoy my yard and because I have plenty of entertainment just outside my window! My winter visitors are often quite beautiful, but can also be pretty amusing! One of my yard mates that is almost always around is the Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay – also known as the Western Scrub-Jay. They are medium sized birds with blue heads, wings and tails, and gray bellies. Like Blue Jays, these birds are perfectly comfortable hanging out in back yards, dining at bird feeders and drinking from bird baths. They are common on the west side of metro Denver and along the foothills, and are very easy to attract to yards in these areas.
How to Attract Scrub-Jays to Your Yard
Woodhouse’s Scrub-jays love sunflower seeds at feeders, but the best way to get them to frequent your yard is to offer shelled, unsalted peanuts now and then (be certain they are unsalted, as salted peanuts can be harmful.) They love them! I drop them onto our deck railing as loudly as I can drop a peanut. If there is a scrub-jay within a couple of houses of ours, it will rush right over! And they are not shy! They will start plucking them off the railing before I even finish dropping them down, coming within feet of me.
Very Sneaky!
If you decide to welcome scrub-jays to your yard by putting out peanuts, I hope you are lucky enough to see these characters “hide” their treasures! This is my favorite part of feeding the jays. They’ll carefully select a peanut after picking up and evaluating several to see which one is the biggest, then they sail off into the yard with the “chosen one”, stick it deep down into the grass, then grab a nearby, fallen leaf to cover up their prized peanut! Seems pretty clever, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, many a time, there is a squirrel watching who will then run over, move the leaf and steal the peanut! Maybe not so clever after all? Actually, I think it may all be part of the plan – a very wise plan!
Scrub-Jays are so Smart!!
I have to wonder if these birds are intentionally sacrificing a peanut when they do this, in order to distract the squirrels (or other jays) while they go hide other peanuts in better hiding spots. Scrub-jays just may be smart enough to think of that, and they have amazing memories! They belong to the Corvidae family of birds, which includes crows and other smarties! In fact, Scrub-jays, along with some other Corvins, are believed to be some of the smartest animals on Earth. It is believed that they are one of just a small group of animals other than humans that can plan ahead!
What Amazing Memories!
Scrub-jays can have close to 200 caches (hiding spots) and actually keep track of what they have hidden in each one!! This definitely surpasses my memory capabilities! Half the time, I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night, and what makes that even worse is that I probably spent over an hour preparing it as well!! But back to the Scrub-jays – One time, I was leaving as my kids were putting peanuts out for the jays. I backed out of the driveway, and as I began to drive off, a scrub-jay flew out from between my house and the neighbors’ with a peanut in its mouth. I watched as it stuffed the peanut into a crack above the trim around my neighbor’s garage door! Throughout the entire year, I find peanuts hidden in the strangest places!
Draw these Demanding Birds to Your Yard!
Scrub-jays can be really loud (and demanding!) They land on my deck railing some mornings and start yelling at me to bring them some peanuts. If you have heard scrub-jays, you understand why I think they are yelling! If you live near the foothills in Colorado, draw Woodhouse’s Scrub-jays to your yard to make your winter season a little more entertaining! And if you do put out peanuts in the shell, you might catch yourself giggling throughout the rest of the year when you find peanuts stashed in the most unexpected spots!!
Learn about other fun backyard wildlife favorites!
