Little Known Fact: Blue Jays are Vicious Carnivores
Look at that Blue Jay, isn’t he cute? They are so beautiful, and so are their songs! I wonder what he had for lunch, probably some berries or something. Such wonderful little creatures.
Little does my grandma know, as she watches the birds fly and sing out her window, that Blue Jays actually readily kill and eat other song birds.
I didn’t know either, until today. I was sitting in the Cascade Dining Hall enjoying my breakfast looking out the window, when I saw a Blue Jay eating something in a tree. As I looked closer, I realized that it was another bird! I rushed outside to try to get a video. Just as I started to film, the bird saw me and flew away with the carcass, dropping the decapitated head at my feet. You can view the pretty graphic picture here.
What a way to start the morning! Since I had never even heard of this before, I decided to do some research. The Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) is actually a member of the Crow (Corvidae) family. All crows eat meat, some more than others. Although Blue Jays eat about 3 times as much plant matter as it does meat, a large part of their diet is made up of other animals such as mice, fish, bats and other small birds. All members of the crow family are know for their intelligence, thats why its so hard for Fluffy to kill them. You can read more about the Corvidae family on this fascinating website: http://science.jrank.org/pages/1886/Crows-Jays.html
Still don’t believe me? Check out this youtube video, the guy had better luck filming it than I did:
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Bizzare, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
snow white and the seven dwarves will never be the same for me…
Its only a matter of time before they get the taste for human flesh.
I saw one catch a small mouse or a vole in my flower garden, drop it and come back a minute later and fly off.
I have seen a Blue Jay eating dead chipmunks in the road on 4-5 occasions for about 3 weeks now…I thought it was just one rogue meat eater!!! I always knew they were nasty little suckers, but had no idea they were carnivores!!!
Even though that bird is blue, it does not mean that it’s a blue jay. That does not look like a blue jay to me. Nice job capturing video footage though.
Exactly, the posted bird in question is known as a scrub jay. From the western U.S. Although I also grew up calling them blue jays.
They are disgusting, evil and oh so smart! The Stella jays in the mountains are not so mean. They are the ones that have the crested heads.
The term “blue jay” is a general term and includes Stellar’s jay and scrub jays.
http://www.pacificwildlife.org/info/Online%20Docs/fmbtaList.pdf
The nice thing about killing bluejays is that when you shoot one off the fence others keep comming to see why joe dropped dead and to bitch. Soon you will have a pile of dead bluejays, a dozen easy, and use a BB or pelet gun.
eeugh, picture of decapitated bird head.
I have sparrow boxes on my deck and I have twice witnessed a blue jay stealing baby sparrows and eating them. I realize it’s all part of nature but was shocked anyway.
I feed birds and have do so for a couple years, and yesterday sitting and watching them out the window I seen a Blue Jay get one of the finches and kill it. I could not believe it.Then the Blue Jay took the dead little bird and fly into my cedar tree out side my window. I dont know why he did that I have never seen a Blue Jay do such a thing, it shocked me.
Thanks for writing this.
Interesting to know.
i read that they all type of things
It is a Scrub Jay. In the West we have Scrub Jays (and Steller’s Jays) but not Blue Jays.
But I do not know about Jays being hard for cats to catch. My Sammy has caught 4 birds all of them were Scrub Jays. I knew they ate eggs and baby birds but I had not thought of them being capable of killing adult birds.
On the other hand the jays are great sentries and often warn the little birds of of an incoming threat.
Thanks for this post– I watched a jay do this yesterday- had a small sparrow on the deck, ripping it apart, and then picked it up and flew off with it. Seemed very viscious- I never heard of this! Now they are looking like big bullies in our daily feeder mix of Doves, jays, blackbirds, sparrows and finches.
I have feeders with finches, sparrows, pigeons, doves, etc. This morning I witnessed my first scrub jay killing a sparrow. I knew they robbed eggs but did not know they would kill and eat other birds!!
I just got baby chicks and a blue jay flew into the pen. I was so shocked. It looked like he was after the chicks. Has anyone ever seen something like this? And is there anything that will keep them away.
I found your site today when I witnessed my own “Wild Kingdom” moment. I never knew this about blue jays. We have a bird feeder at work for our assortment of finches, and I arrived at work early this morning to have a little quiet moment watching the finches while sipping my coffee.
A finch flew into the mirrored window of the office, and when I went to investigate the noise, I saw him struggling to get up from the ground when a blue jay swooped down on it and began to rip it apart.
I didn’t react quick enough, because At first I thought the jay was trying to rescue the little bird, but then, after watching the little bird struggle to get away, the jay picked it up in it’s beak and flew to the tree in the parking lot. I went to look at the the crime scene and there was a huge puddle of blood, along with guts from the still-alive finch. ugh! Then, after that, the jay kept attacking the finches that tried to eat at the feeder.
I always knew they were violent aggressive birds, but I didn’t know they were carnivores. Thanks for your information, I’m glad I found your site.
Thanks for sharing this information. I just watched with horror as a scrub jay attacked an adult sparrow right outside my apartment building (San Francisco Bay Area, California). It kept holding the sparrow down and jabbing at it with its beak. Feathers were flying, and another sparrow was hopping around nearby, apparently hoping it could do something to save the prey. The scrub jay eventually flew off with the sparrow in its beak. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Thanks for the confirmation that scrub jays eat other birds.
June 2nd, 2009 — I was pulling up in front of my parents home and saw a group of birds in the street. Mostly sparrows, but there was one Cardinal and one Blue Jay. The Blue Jay was picking up and tossing around a sparrow (that was still alive) I tried to scare away the birds to try to help the little one that was getting beat up by the Blue Jay but the Blue Jay picked it up and flew off with it! I couldn’t believe my eyes!!
My mom loves the birds and has a bird feeder on her front porch….I told her any my dad what happened and they couldn’t believe it either! None of us thought that a Blue Jay would do that!
Thanks for the info….I never knew they were carnivores!!
I had no idea that blue jays were carnivores! I watched this morning as a robin and a mockingbird were both attacking a blue jay -usually it’s each other. I then saw the blue jay fly off with what appeared to be a baby bird in it’s beak! I will never view them the same again!
I just come on to this site to find out about the attack I just witnessed. Two scrubs were making a racket but another sound came through. They were after a baby sparrow! The sparrow got into some of my thick ferns but the jays have been back looking for it. I fear the worst for the baby and I think the parents have given up hope. There has been no sign of their search.
I had a dream about carnivorous blue jays. So I looked it up, and lo and behold…they are.
I just saw this, too. My story is a lot like an earlier one. I’m sitting on my couch looking out the window and a finch bangs into the window and falls onto the porch, stunned. Within ten seconds, a scrub jay is down on top of the finch, kills it and then takes the carcass and flies away with it. I never knew they did that.
I’m thinking of soaking whole(unshelled)peanuts in some kind of pesticide or something similar and letting them dry. Small song birds won’t go after them. Jays LOVE them!
You’re sick. Plenty of animals will eat peanuts, including small children. Please don’t do something so stupid.
How do i get rid of the Blue Jays, anyway besides a pellet gun? Because mine needs a new seal and Would rather put somethin poisonous that only a BlueJay will eat. The bastards have found out I feed alot of birds and there was like 6 of them out there yesterday. I have doves and little song birds that come all the time but when the BJ’s come only the doves sometimes stay. If they kill any of my little ones it will be WAR. My friend told me that they find food source and guard it.
that bird in the video isn’t a bluejay at all!
…its a scrub jay =D
could you describe the bird you saw eating the other bird because scrub jays lack teh black and white bands on their feathers that blue jays have.
This past Saturday, I heard this bang against my window and looked out to see a poor bird on the ground and to my suprise a scrub jay attacking and killing it to eat. It flew away with the bird in its mouth. Like others on this site, I was shocked and had no idea. Not five minutes later I heard another bang against the window and looked out to see a bird crippled on the floor. I went to check 5 minutes later and it was gone. I’m convinced the jay was tricking these birds to run into the window so that it could eat them. I had to look it up on the web and I think this site confirms it. Tricky savage little guys…
Yep they are Scrub (stellar) Jays. Ya gotta get tuff and shoot all you see as you will have no other birds around just their excessive unnerving squaking. They even ran off all my Robins which I love to have around. The only amazing thing I saw concerning a natural approach to ridding them was one afternoon I was sitting outside and saw a Scrub Jay diving and flying like he was scared to death,,, what was after him? A Hummingbird!!! It was so manuverable and so fast it just kept jabing the Jay with it’s pointy beak. That Jay did not come back all day. It was the coolest thing. I was standing and rooting for this tiny beauty. So, the moral is,,, encourage as many as possible Hummingbirds and you will run those rottem suckers away. Sign me pissed off in Oregon.
today at work, as i was smokeing outside, under a birds nest, two deheaded baby birds fell out of there nest. i looked up to see a blue jay popping out of the nest, and sat there looking at me. as soon as i went back inside, the blue jay flew down and picked up one the dead birds and flew off, alil while later the blue jay came back and killed a third bird. nasty lil suckers
I saw the SAME thing happen yesterday and decided to look it up on the internet! A bluejay decapitated a small dove and ate the head!! It was so morbid!
I never knew blue jays were cannibals until today. I’m a teacher and had a group of 8th grade students outside for class this morning when two of the girls started screaming. When I discovered what they were upset over, I witnessed a blue jay on top of an adult sparrow pecking it to death. When I tried to scare the blue jay away, it picked up the sparrow, flew into a tree right above my students, ripped the head off the sparrow, and gobbled it down. It then dropped the remainder of the body of the sparrow right into the area the students were sitting. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that bird was possessed or something – it was so purposeful! Thanks for posting this – very informative.
I hate Blue Jays…very mean. And now I have two of them attacking my cat and squaking all day. I have been squirting them with the hose on full force but that only works momentarily so, tonight my son-in-law is bringing over the BB gun…YES! I would put poison out but don’t want to hurt the other birds. My poor cat has to stay on the back porch today because I would rather hear him meow than to hear those dang Blue Jays squawk all day!!
blue jays are mean.. ive been attacked while running before
Nothing a steady aim and a baseball bat can’t take care of.
I just found your site after googling “blue jays eat mice”. Had to research since I was sitting on my deck wondering what this Blue Jay kept diving at and pecking at in my yard. Then I realized it was a field mouse! Poor thing was running around trying to get away…the Jay was trying to peck it to death! It flew off and left the mouse half dead.
Greetings! Happy to find your site. I would like to point out a couple things though: What you’re seeing here is a **Scrub Jay**, has others have already pointed out. Scrub Jays and Blue Jays are not the same bird, nor do they have the same habits, markings, or diets, although it is very easy to confuse the two. Scrub Jays are not even actual members of the Jay family, they only got the name because of their superficial similarity of appearence to the Blue Jay. Scrub Jays are, as you noted, members of the crow family, and yes they are very aggressive, but even they are not straight-out carnivores. They are omnivores just like you, me, bears, and racoons, etc. That’s just a fancy way of saying they eat anything. Scrub Jays range all across the US and Canada, although they are more common in the west, especially the northwest (Washington, British Columbia, Idaho, Northern Cali, and here in Oregon), they are significantly larger than all members of the Jay family, both sexes lack any sort of crest like a Jay, and they also lack the white banding markings common to Blue Jays.
Blue Jays do NOT eat the meat of birds and mammals. Yes, they WILL eat the eggs of other birds if they cannot find enough food, but they prefer seeds, seedlings (watch your gardens!), berries and small fruits, and insects (they are great for mosquito control!). In my 28 years of caring for, and watching wild birds I have found that Blue Jays get along great wih other song birds, especially doves and robins. They can get a little aggressive in a food shortage, but that is typical of any species. Blue Jays DO hate mice, and may attack them on sight, noone knows why. Hey, natural pest control!
Scub Jays, on the other hand, will attempt to DOMINATE any territory they set up shop in. I’m currently having difficulty with a family of them myself. They will run off all other birds, attack squirrels, dive bomb your cat, make alot of racket at 4 AM, and be a general nuisance, and yes, they will attempt to kill anything that doesn’t comply with their territorial demands, even YOU. There are only four ways to get rid of Scrub Jays, and no way is 100% effective.
1: Attract as many Hummingbirds as possible to your yard. The two species hate each other and Hummingbirds will not hesitate to attack Scrub Jays (and crows!) especially if they can get a buddy to help. However, it goes both ways, so only employ this method if you are prepared for a full-out war to take place in your backyard and you are willing to deal with the casualties. This method is both difficult and costly, however. It is always difficult to attract large numbers of Hummingbirds, especially since thier numbers are dropping due to our stupidity, and it is a time-consuming method. Remember, you CANNOT allow Hummingbird food (or sugar water) to remain in your feeder for longer than two days, one day in very hot weather. AND, you must throughly clean your feeders EACH time you refill them. Why? because the slightest bit of mold build-up will kill your little friends when they drink. The black mold causes their tongues to swell to the point that they cannot feed, and Hummingbirds must feed several times a day to live. Repeated exposure will cause the tongue to swell to the point of cutting off their airway, which in a Hummingbird leads to guaranteed death in around 40 seconds. Most people either don’t know, or don’t bother with keeping their feeders clean, and this mold can form in less than 48 hours after sun exposure to the food. The whole time you think your doing a nice thing for your feathered friends, you maybe killing them instead.
2: Remove ALL sources of food from your yard. Scrub Jays are lazy birds and will only set up shop in places where they is a ready supply of seed, nuts, insects, or small animals. Remove all birdseed, squrriel food, spray for outdoor insects, and try to convince your neighbors to do the same until the Scrubs have moved on to greener pastures.
3: Soak birdseed, sunflower seeds, and peanuts in a solution made from mouse/rat poison. Get some DECON mouse poison from your local supermarket or home improvement store. Mix four tablespoons of it into 12 ounces of water. Mix well and allow to dissolve as much as possible, leaving it overnight if you must. Make multiple 12 ounce batches if you wish. Pour into a large bowel, mix in seed and peanuts and allow to soak overnight. Drain the next day and allow seed to dry on a layer of papertowels. When seed/peanuts are all dry, dump em in a plastic bowl or whatever and place outside on your porch table or anywhere else Scrub Jays like to feed in your yard. Repeat as required. In a few days, you’ll have dead Scrubs. WARNING: Be mindful of other wildlife when employing this method.
4: ‘Ye Olde BB/Pellet Gun. Best used in combination with peanuts as bait. In the country I find a scoped Ruger 10/22 works best. More range and greater accuracy. although I HATE to kill things, sometimes you gotta.
Happy Bird Watching!
It is NOT true that Blue Jays don’t kill song birds!!! I had the awesome experience watching 7 baby House Wrens leave the nesting bird house Aug. 9th, 2010 in my back yard. It was the most thrilling brush with nature I have ever had…..until a Blue Jay attacked and killed one of the baby birds, moments after all the little ones left the bird house and flew into a near by pine tree. There was lots of chatter with all the baby wrens as well as both male and female wrens. I climbed the slide next to our swimming pool to view how the little ones were all in the tree with parents. I was more than shocked to see the Blue Jay holding the little wren down with it’s feet and proceeding to kill it. I shouted at the Bastard Blue Jay and clapped my hands……..away he flew with the little wren.
Don’t tell me that Blue Jays don’t eat song birds. Perhaps he came back later in the day to kill 3 more because there are only 3 left in
my back yard the rest of this week being fed by their parents. I guess I may soon purchase a BB/Pellet Gun and look for blue and white in my back yard. To read about the jays, is one thing, but to see it with my own eyes, was the worst! Hopefully I will see a pile of Blue Jay feathers and know that it was pay back with the hawks in our area. Better check your facts Jack, written on July 17th, 2010.
Just call me Annie Oakley with Blue Jays in the site of my gun… Sheila
i am looking for an organic rat poison coz i do not want to use synthetic ones.`*
interesting commento n the blue jays
rat poisons are chemical based that is also dangerous to your pets”‘~
these blue jays want you to post more
sometimes rat poisons are never effective against rats so i use a mousetrap instead ‘
Two weekends ago, on Saturday of the MLK weekend i took my dogs to the backyard to do their business when something caught my eye in the trees beyond my deck. It was a red tail hawk who was eating something. I grabbed my binoculars to check out what was going on and saw that the unfortunate creature was a gray squirrel. A hawk eating a squirrel, not so disturbing.
I kept coming back to the kitchen door to see what was going on and in one of those occasions i saw blue jays picking at the carcass. I was shocked, as i had no idea that they eat meat!
I have lots of feeders in my backyard and deck and all types of birds come to visit many times a day, included the jays but i guess now knowing that they are in the crow family and are actually omnivores makes me look at them differently, not in a bad way though. It is just nature.
A blue jay attacked a nest with four young birds today. Grabbed one and flew away. The others scattered to the four winds. Mom and dad bird flying around frantically. I has pretty mad at the jay.
Blue Jays are protected by federal law. It’s illegal to poison, kill or otherwise harm them. Blue Jays rarely eat young house sparrows..They are important to our ecosystem in that that reforest barren areas. We have Blue Jays (and other Jays) to thank for our trees, and, therefore the very air we breathe. I’ve been working with Jays for over 8 years and can honestly say I see the Jays being bullied by other birds…notably Doves, Cardinals, Mockingbirds and even house sparrows. Please take the time to know the animals so many of you are defaming and killing.
Arlene, trust me, the only time you’ll see jays being harassed is when they get too close to another species’ nest. They are being fought off, not “bullied”.
Amen to that!! Doves are so docile, I’ve personally seen jays ATTACK the doves at my feeder. Sparrows are so small, they can’t defend themselves against these big bullies.
I love all animals, insects (just about) and nature, but it sickens me to see poor innocent birds being eaten alive!!!!
On Sat. May 28th 2011 I watched a blue jay attack and fly off with a CHIPMUNK from beneath my birdfeeder. The following morning, what I assume was the same jay, attacked and tried to kill a chipping sparrow from beneath the feeder. I chased off the jay and retrieved the sparrow from the lawn as it had burrowed into the high grass. Its head was featherless and bleeding behind the base of the beak and appeared more shocked then injured. After holding the sparrow for a few minutes it flew off. In my 45 years of birdwatching I had never witnesses such a agressive carnivorus behavior by a blue jay. I now know that it is not such an unusual trait in the species.
I am appalled. I just stumbled across a jay beating the f*ck out of a sparrow in my yard. It was like watching a knife murder. STAB STAB STAB! unfortunately I scared the jay away, now the sparrow is slowly dying out there, breathing really hard while it bleeds to death. This means the hungry jay, who did not come back, is going to hunt down another one. I hope I never see this happen again. It is and was horrible. I typed in “blue jay carnivore”, that’s how I stumbled on your site.
[...] have found very few accounts of this predatory behavior by bluejays, but there are a few. Here is one. Here is another. This entry was posted in Musings, Wildlife. Bookmark the permalink. ← [...]
I too just found your blog after just watching in shock as a scrub jay went after a mouse I had released on a hillside. Nuts!
Great blog, too. “I wonder what it had for lunch, maybe some berries or something.” Guess again!
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I have a white cat that likes to sun bath in our frontyard, a bluejay and his mate have been yelling at my cat for about 3 weeks, I have a large cherry tree in my front yard that usually has a lot of bird in in, is now with no birds. I hate these birds and do not know how to get rid or them… I borrowed my sons air soft gun and am prepared to shoot the dame things…I have tried staying outside with my cat, and have stayed by the front door to scare the birds away but it does not work, they even go into the garage to yell at my cat.. I know I am going to shoot those dame birds…. Does anyone know how to get rid of them… Please help I am not into killing another animal..