Blue jays are familiar, striking birds across eastern and central North America, recognized by their vibrant blue, white, and black plumage. These intelligent birds exhibit a diverse range of feeding behaviors, consuming both plant and animal matter.
Primary Food Sources
Blue jays are omnivorous, with plant-based foods forming a significant portion of their diet, particularly nuts and seeds. Acorns are a staple, especially in fall and winter. They also consume other nuts like beechnuts and hickory nuts, along with various seeds, grains, and small fruits. These plant materials can make up to 75% of their diet over the year, with a higher percentage during colder months.
Their strong beaks are well-suited for cracking open hard nuts and seeds, which they often hold with their feet while working. Berries and small fruits, such as cherries, grapes, blackberries, and huckleberries, also supplement their diet. These provide energy, especially when readily available seasonally.
Diverse Dietary Habits
Beyond plant matter, blue jays incorporate a variety of animal-based foods into their diet, highlighting their adaptability as opportunistic feeders. Insects form a regular part of their meals, including caterpillars, beetles, grasshoppers, cicadas, and spiders. They are skilled at catching airborne insects in flight. While insects make up about 22% of their stomach contents over the year, this percentage can fluctuate seasonally.
Blue jays also consume small vertebrates like mice, frogs, and lizards. Although less common, they are known to eat bird eggs and occasionally nestlings from other species. Evidence of eggs or other birds in their stomachs is rare, found in only about 1% of examined cases.
Foraging and Food Storage
Blue jays forage in trees, shrubs, and on the ground. They use their robust bills to pound on hard nuts and seeds to break them open. A significant behavior is their food caching, where they store large quantities of nuts and seeds for later consumption. They can carry multiple acorns at once, utilizing a gular pouch in their throat to transport up to five acorns to a storage site.
This caching behavior is particularly important for acorns, with a single blue jay capable of burying thousands in a season. Caches, often buried under leaves or in shallow ground holes, are remembered with remarkable accuracy. This habit contributes to seed dispersal, playing a role in the regeneration and spread of oak trees by inadvertently planting new growth when caches are not retrieved.
Feeding Blue Jays at Home
To attract blue jays to your yard, offer specific foods at feeders. Peanuts, in or out of the shell, are a favorite. Black oil sunflower seeds and suet cakes are also appealing options that provide essential fats and proteins. Mealworms, fresh or dried, can be offered as a high-protein treat.
Blue jays, being larger birds, prefer sturdier feeders like platform or tray feeders that provide ample space. Providing a fresh water source is also beneficial for drinking and bathing. Avoid offering bread, salty snacks, or processed foods, as these lack nutrients and can be harmful. Unsalted nuts are preferred.