We often see small, bright, blue-colored birds in our backyard, and we got curious to know what type of birds these are. To our surprise, it was a little Blue Jay! We heard these are some aggressive birds.
But are Blue Jays friendly to humans?
As beautiful as Blue Jays are, they’re not known for being friendly. They’re territorial, and if they feel threatened by us, they will immediately attack. But you can try befriending them with a little patience.
Moreover, this aggressive behavior of Blue Jays is natural. It’s not like they specifically hate you, but they hate every species that comes near their babies or nests. However, learning more about Blue Jays will help you befriend them.
Can Blue Jays Be Aggressive?
Can you imagine a small 12-inch bird is ready to fight whoever comes near it? We didn’t until we experienced it ourselves. But to be honest, we were a little too close to its nest.
Blue Jays live in the East Rocky Mountains of the United States and Canada. They don’t like living in the deep forests much and prefer more open spaces with oak trees. If you didn’t already know, these little vibrant birds are territorial creatures, and they hate when other animals or even humans enter it.
That’s why Blue Jays build their nests 10 to 25 feet above ground on thick branches or tree curves or crotches. Even after building their nests, they guard it day and night to keep their nest safe from squirrels, woodpeckers, snakes, crows, other Jays, and cats.
However, a small bird guarding their nest, young ones, or food source doesn’t look much intimidating, so what do they do? Blue Jays aggressively attack any predators nearby.
They usually warn others by hissing and flapping their wings aggressively; when nothing works, they use their claws and beaks for protection.
Moreover, Blue Jays think every species is their enemy and is trying to harm them, so they often become aggressive. They even attack animals double their size without a care in the world. So, it’s clear to say they can be aggressive, but for the right reasons.
Blue Jays Fight For Food Sources
If you ask us to describe Blue Jays, we would say they’re beautiful but also the bullies of the avian world.
A Blue Jay’s diet mainly includes 75% of plants and the rest with protein, and as omnivores, they have a varied diet. Sometimes, they will eat other birds, but this isn’t common because whenever Blue Jays need protein, they eat acorns or seeds. So there’s not much of a need to eat other eggs or younglings.
However, when collecting food or feeding from the bird feeders, Blue Jays tend to bully other birds to keep them away from it. They belong to the Corvidea family, which includes intelligent birds, and they use this intelligence to their benefit.
Blue Jays can imitate a variety of hawks and use different vocalizations to scare even the mightiest hawks and raptors. They will even bully larger birds of prey, making them drop their food and flee, so the Blue Jay can have it. How savage!
Moreover, aside from having great intelligence, Blue Jays are also tough fighters when they’re together. If you already couldn’t understand, they have a mob mentality, and whenever they want to fight something larger than them, they form a gang.
They also use this gang method to defend their territories, young babies, nests, etc. They also show this aggressive behavior towards humans if we try to invade their area.
Blue Jays Will Attack Humans, But Only If They Feel Threatened
If you have ever seen a Blue Jay, you definitely know they’re small-sized birds. They have different hues of beautiful blue feathers all over their 12-inch bodies and only weigh about four ounces.
A Blue Jay’s small structure makes them suitable prey for many large predators. So, we usually see them being grumpy and aggressive because they always have to be alert to save themselves and their nests.
So, a Blue Jay will attack humans if they feel scared or they think of you as a threat to their babies or nests. However, you won’t be attacked by just one but two Blue Jays. Curious?
Well, if you didn’t know, Blue Jays mate for life with their partners and only seek a new one when the other one is no more. So, being a team, both parents divide the duties of feeding, nesting, and more between themselves. So, it’s obvious both are on guarding duty and will attack simultaneously.
However, Blue Jays don’t attack humans often as they tend to make their nests in residential places. This helps them remain safe from any predators in the wild. Although the success rate of a Blue Jay’s egg hatching is 50/50, we humans actually help them be safe.
Can You Be Friends with a Blue Jay Bird?
Blue Jays are always defensive about everything. Even if we are just minding our business, they’ll feel threatened and might attack. So, can we avoid this and just be friends with Blue Jays?
We can do it with a bit of patience and some useful tips. Blue Jays are capable of forming bonds, but it’s time-consuming as they don’t trust anyone, even not their own kind.
How Do You Befriend a Blue Jay?
We have six fantastic and effective tips that will help you befriend a Blue Jay. We tried this ourselves, and now we have a very blue-flying friend right in our backyard. So, let’s fly in.
1. Find a Place & Offer Food
Befriending a Blue Jay, step one is to find a comfortable and safe place to place food. If Blue Jays don’t find the place safe, they won’t stay there. So, look around your yard and find an area with shade and foliage cover to protect them from predators.
Then you need to get the Blue Jays’ favorite food. You can buy sunflower seeds, acorns, peanuts, corn, etc. Mix them all and put them in a bird feeder in a safe place. Now, see what happens!
2. Give Water
When you provide the Blue Jays with their favorite foods, don’t forget to give some water to them. You can easily find bird feeders with water space; otherwise, you can also get bird baths to fill up with water.
The Blue Jays will enjoy a drink as well as a nice bath. Soon they will realize that your backyard is a safe space, and they will be more comfortable around you.
3. Provide Shelter
You can always build birdhouses for the Blue Jays to perch on. Another option for providing shelter is planting native fruit trees for the vibrant blue bird to hide and observe.
Blue Jays are naughty little rascals who love to scare other birds when they visit “their” bird feeders. For example, the migratory bird Baltimore Orioles hangs around bird feeders for a meal. A Blue Jay will watch from their shelter and suddenly try to startle the bird.
However, Baltimore Orioles aren’t easily startled, and this trick doesn’t work on them. So, they just let it go and observe our activities instead.
4. Avoid Spraying Chemicals
Pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, fungicides, vermicides, and insecticides are full of harmful chemicals that can even kill birds that eat insects, fruits, etc.
These types of chemicals are highly toxic to many birds, so we suggest you implement natural pest control methods. You can release ladybugs to kill aphids and spider mites.
5. Provide Nesting Material
Whenever we brush our pets, we get a lot of fur. Do you know what we do with it? No, we don’t just throw it away; we place it near bird feeders to provide nesting material for birds. This has worked magically to achieve the trust of many birds.
Moreover, when you provide nesting material like feathers, fur, and twigs, you automatically gain a percentage of trust from these little blue wonders. Blue Jays know how to appreciate kindness and will remember your face and be grateful.
6. Speak Softly & Have Patience
Speaking softly to anyone automatically makes us more trustable to people. This is the same for birds. So, when the Blue Jays visiting your backyard are a little comfortable seeing you, talk to them slowly and softly. You can also give them names if you want.
However, all these processes will take you a long time, maybe a month or even a year. So, you need to have the patience to let a Blue Jay trust you.
Conclusion
Blue Jays are amazing little birds of fire who just love being aggressive for no reason sometimes. But their aggression is mostly because of their size. They need to show aggression to scare away any predators.
However, if you want to befriend a Blue Jay, make sure to follow our tips. Not only will you gain a regular visitor, but you will also gain a great blue friend.
