Steller's Jay
Steller's Jay Video Clips
Steller's Jays are very aggressive and audacious birds. The juveniles show a fearless attitude towards life. They are the alarm bird and when they sound the alarm, all the other birds take cover.
Steller's Jay & Hawk Behavior
They tend to gang up on the local hawk to chase the hawk out of the property. We've often seen a hawk with it's talons on the back of a Steller's Jay. The Steller's Jay squatts as close to the ground as it can and screams. It appears that these loud screams keeps them from harm as the hawk lets go of the jay and flies into a nearby bush or tree only to have another jay annoy the hawk by flying around it.
Steller's & Baby Birds & Bumble Bees
Steller's Jays have a varied diet of seeds, peanut butter, insects and baby birds. We watch these jays eat hundreds of bumble bees every spring and summer. They are also known to devastate a bird's nest and eat baby birds. They are particularly fond of hummingbirds. We watched a Steller's Jay try to capture a juvenile hummer while the hummer was sitting in a bush.