Jays recognising peanuts

[Hedgehoggy]

As I was topping up my peanut feeder today on a picnic bench in my garden (these picnic benches do actually have a use given that we don’t have a decent summer here to use them as they were originally designed for!), a Jay landed on the branch of the nearest tree to me, exactly where I hang this particular feeder (literally just a few feet away from where I was stood and the closest I’ve ever been to a Jay) and started crawing in that harsh call they make. It then flew to another tree a little further away while I replaced the feeder back on the branch.

This has now got me wondering. Can some birds recognise from a long distance certain foods we put out? The Jays are not 'residents' in my garden, just infrequent visitors during the winter.

I use this picnic bench to refill all my feeders - sunflower hearts, fatballs and peanuts - and whenever I’m refilling the sunflower hearts a robin always ‘magically’ appears so I always put a little pile for him underneath where he’s perched watching me. I hang most of my feeders in branches leaning against the trunks of my trees so all the visiting bird species have easy access to them, even the Blackbirds and Robins can access the feeders easily.

Most of my feeders aren’t visible from any of the windows in my house, so I never really know exactly what is feasting on them unless I’m actually out in the garden.

BTW, off topic but I thought I would share this with you anyway! I heard a Black-headed Gull calling from deep within my large holly tree at the weekend, I was quite taken aback by this until I spotted it was a Starling doing a perfect mimic of the BHGs which visit my garden only in the harsh weather!

[Wild-Woman]

Corvids are intelligent birds so I'm sure a Jay would recognise peanuts.

Like your starling mimicking a Black-headed Gull. I've heard them mimicking Curlews from a rooftop!

[badgerwatcher]

Jays are mad for peanuts. One of 'mine' has taught itself to hang upside down on the feeder while it eats them.
My birds now stay in the branches all around my head watching me fill the feeders, tweeting at me to hurry up.

[marian's birds]

Originally Posted by Hedgehoggy

Can some birds recognise from a long distance certain foods we put out?

I am sure they can. I can go for several days without seeing a starling, but as soon as I put some dried mealworms out, they flock down in large numbers. None of the other birds get a chance to get anywhere near them!

I've never seen a jay around here. However, I regularly go to Devon and we see and hear them there on a daily basis - in the autumn they'd fly into the apple trees and eat the apples.

[Tringa]

I think the Jay has learned that you sitting on the bench means there will be food soon.

However, the idea that birds can spot food from a distance appears possible.

In our garden Jays are not frequent visitors but I can almost be 100% sure one will appear if I put peanuts on the shed roof.

Magpies find the mealworms very quickly and if I put fat cakes out the starlings seem to materialise from nowhere.

Dave

[Hedgehoggy]

Originally Posted by Tringa

I think the Jay has learned that you sitting on the bench means there will be food soon.

Do you know I think you may be right! Considering they don't roost in my garden like my regular garden birds do, they must be roosting somewhere within sight of my backdoor and my picnic bench, then when they spy me coming out with food, they quietly fly over to see what's on offer and if it's not peanuts, they quietly fly back again, completely unnoticed by moi! My 'peanut feeder' was a seed feeder in a previous life but I modified it so the birds could take away whole peanuts quickly during the cold winters.

Originally Posted by badgerwatcher

One of 'mine' has taught itself to hang upside down on the feeder while it eats them.

Now that I would love to see, must be highly entertaining!

Originally Posted by marian's birds

I can go for several days without seeing a starling, but as soon as I put some dried mealworms out, they flock down in large numbers.

That also sounds familiar, marian! There's always a couple of starlings roosting somewhere in my garden throughout the day on 'food sentry duty' and as soon as I scatter food on the ground, the 'couple' miraculously materialise into 20+! Derren Brown eat your heart out!

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

I've heard them mimicking Curlews from a rooftop!

I liked that a lot!

[LRM]

I've only seen Jays once in my garden in last years snow, with beaks stuffed full of whole peanuts. (I crush them in the food processor but a few escape being crushed.)

But on the subject of birds watching for food - I put dinner scraps out for the rooks, jackdaws and lately seagulls. When I go out, not a bird in sight but after a while they all come rushing in.

It can be a few seconds, and they can all be fighting over the food before I've got back to the door or it can take a few minutes or even an hour (sometimes the silly things fly in - sit on the telephone line, then fly off without eating - for some reason).

If I stand and watch, I'll see one flying in, then another and then 2 or 3 then the whole flock. We used to have 1 or 2 seagulls now there are about a dozen and they also appear from nowhere. Strangely the jackdaws who live next door will sit and watch and won't come down until the rooks appear, so they keep missing first dibs at the food.

They must have lookouts who circle around and call in the rest of them.

In the summer there was a lame seagull, who came every day. I struggled to find scraps every day for him, but managed by clearing out some 'recently out of date old food' from my fathers deep freezer (he was in hospital for 3 months) As soon as the gull saw me walk up the drive he would fly from one roof to the end of the other roof and then as I walked back he would come down. After awhile he even seemed to have found a mate and was courting her, but she seemed more interested in eating his food. He seemed strong and even chased off another gull who tried to move in.

I had to go into hospital for 2 weeks so he didn't get fed so much. I didn't see him for a couple of weeks after I came out, but then he came back for a few days, but seemed to have forgotten, 'our trick' and didn't fly down so quickly. Then 6 or 8 other gulls arrived, I tried to feed him and not the others but it was impossible and he disappeared and I never saw him again.

[badgerwatcher]

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by Hedgehoggy

.......... Can some birds recognise from a long distance certain foods we put out? The Jays are not 'residents' in my garden, just infrequent visitors during the winter.
..........

Jays, like other corvids, have very acute vision over some distance. I'm not sure that they'd 'recogbnise' peanuts from a great distance but what they will do is recognise 'nuts' in a generic sense!
I suspect that this year they are coming deeper into gardens and other human spaces. Commonly we see them on trees/shrubs at the end of the garden - the woodland edge - and they will come into that end of the garden to pick up fallen acorns. They must be short of acorns this year so are having to search gardens for a substitute. This morning one came right up to the front border of the garden and made a meal of the food put out for the ground feeders - no peanuts, I'm afraid.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

Corvids are intelligent birds so I'm sure a Jay would recognise peanuts.

Like your starling mimicking a Black-headed Gull. I've heard them mimicking Curlews from a rooftop!

Mine do a golden plover impression!