Scrub jays duke it out to see who’s the toughest jay
By Gary Bogue
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 at 6:22 am in Jays, scrub jay.
Scrub jays fighting. Photo by Dave Harper, Oakley, CA
Gary:
Here is a view from a fight as scrub jays have a knock down drag out battle …
Dave Harper, Oakley, California
Dave:
Great photo! Male scrub jays are VERY territorial and I suspect that’s what’s going on. One male jay is trying to get the other male jay to move on and move on get off his turf. Of course jays never ask anything nicely. They just dive right into it. They’re pretty pushy. /Gary
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June 22nd, 2011 at 6:55 am
I always think of Jays as the New York cab drivers of the avian world. Gotta admire their moxie!
June 22nd, 2011 at 10:03 am
I have to say, they have a lot of mettle. I have seen them as a large group corner a cat. This cat was a very large burmese. He was shaking and making this noise that brought half the neighborhood out to see.
June 22nd, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Dave: And it’s not just adult jay v. adult jay. I feed them at work. The juvenile was getting too close to me, and the parent starting hitting it on the head with the peanut he/she just took from me. Absolutely territorial!
June 26th, 2011 at 9:41 am
I like the Jay stories, they are a cocky sort. When out in the wild I believe one can use the sounds of the Jays to locate animals. On the other hand some times they warn the others of you out there. This fight went on for 10 minutes or so and at times the birds were laying flat on the ground with death grips on one another. I was actually concerned for their well being. Eventually they both flew to the roof of my neighbors house and stared at each other. They had had enough.
September 13th, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Note to Dave Harper: Back to the territorial Scrub Jays — the ones that I feed at work will take the peanut from my hand. It involves a daily hike around the company walkway during lunch.
The other day I met up with a coworker whom I literally haven’t seen for a couple of years. Twenty minutes into our conversation, one of the Jays landed in the parking lot alongside us — and started squawking a multitude of reprimands.
I think Nancy described them best as similar to NY cabbies. You’ve got to love these characters!