Blue Jay for a Day

We had a curious visitor last week.

He flew into our yard and decided he liked the place.

I guess he liked the pool. The color suited him.

He probably thought the pond was a great place for a bath.

He even saw a bird seed buffet in the yard – though it had been picked clean and needed a refill.

Whatever the reason, the blue jay that paid us a visit last week liked our yard, and he seemed to like me too.

We were having some work done on the bricks around the pool, and our little visitor first started following the guy with the power washer. Wouldn’t leave him alone. Where he went, so went the bird.

After a while, he informed me of our curious new critter. He was sitting on one of the dining chairs by the trestle table.

I thought this might make a good little video, so I started recording.

What happened over the next hour was amazing.

This little blue jay was either crazy, a genius, or some combination of the two.

I got him to fly into my hand on four occasions to eat seeds.

He took a keen interest in my watch and my wedding band.

He hopped around on my head.

He even stuck two sunflower seeds in my ear. Stashing them there for safe keeping, no doubt.

At last, he flew into our garage where Handan was painting and took a perch so he could watch her work. Once we got him out of the garage, he flew off, and that was the last we saw of him.

He was our blue jay for a day.





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38 Comments

  1. Greg,
    It looks like you were his room service for the day. How funny. When word gets out, you’ll be the go-to yard for hand-served meals. LOL Thanks for sharing this video.

  2. Looks like a baby bluejay – the way he put his wings out and begged for food. So glad he got some from you!

  3. Great videos!! Love the way the tree trimmers works…amazing to watch! And your blue jay for a day was fabulous! How fun to get to interact with wild animals like that! Good thing he didn’t keep stuffing your ear with seeds :o)

    1. I love all the wildlife up here, Susan! I had no idea he was putting seeds in there until he flew off and I started pulling them out, lol!

  4. How lovely! We shared a picnic lunch with a beautiful Blue Jay on the road between Prince George and Prince Rupert in Canada, and brought home a million photos of it. There are NO Blue Jays in Australia, so it was a very exciting encounter.

    1. They are beautiful birds, Susan. Until the day of this video, I never cared for blue jays because of their god-awful screeching. But this little guy changed my mind about them đŸ™‚

  5. greg, that is with out a doubt the best dam video I have ever seen of a person interacting with nature, I was grinning from ear to ear and have watched it twice, loved it xx

  6. Love this so much!!! The bird , writing, your babes voice as well as yours?. Awesomeness overload!!!!! How cool!? Love it!!! Lucky bird whisperers!!!!! ✌??????????????????

  7. Just spwatched the Blue Jay video again. The animals do like you. What ever happen with Milo the mouse. And by the way Handan I l8ked your Lighted House wreath.

    1. Thank you, Kathy! Poor little Milo didn’t make it, but his time with us made us fall in love with little creatures. Shortly after he passed, we went out and bought 3 female gerbils. To our surprise, one turned out to be pregnant, and now we have 9 gerbils! I’ll post about them sometime in the future đŸ™‚

  8. It’s been my experience in life that extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people and that’s clearly the case with you and the birds. These things are magic moments in life and I’m so happy you captured this (and the hummingbird) for the rest of us to experience. Thank you for sharing this.

  9. It looks as if you have that special touch. I would go as far as to say, he likes and trust you. Beautiful bird, thanks for sharing.

  10. What a great video… And experience! That jay will probably nest in your yard and watch you from now on.
    You are so blessed to have a connection with the birds there! Maybe Buzz Hammerstein passed the word that you’re an okay guy to hang with!? Lol!
    I’m jealous!

  11. Well, Greg, that was just adorable!! He didn’t seem to be afraid of you at all! How fun that must have been! Love the “ear storage” idea, too bad it didn’t work out! LOL! Thanks for all the entertainment!

  12. That is an unbelievable video! The fact that he jumped onto your hand at all, but then stayed almost 8 minutes! We have two bird baths in our back yard with plenty of bluebirds stopping in for drinks and baths, but we never had one that friendly. Thanks for sharing!

  13. Oh wow! Can’t believe I missed this post! I was glued. How many of us would love an encounter like this.bless your little peapicking heart for taking time to just be quiet and enjoy gods creature! ( I can say peapicking..because you’re in the south now!) ?