WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-In defense of blue jays

Blue jays have a bad rap! In spite of their brilliant blue plumage, they are frequently chased away from bird feeders from homeowners who classify them along with squirrels as pests. But naturalist Charlie Browne from the Fairbanks Museum says not so fast! Blue jays are just misunderstood!

"Yes, that's because people are misinformed about what blue jays are doing at their bird feeders. They see them, they see them gorging on all of the bird seed, thinking they are wasting it, they're pigs, they drive away the other birds. That's not really the case. Blue jays have a pouch, like most birds do, in the throat called a crop. And they do fill their crop with seed, but then they take that seed and store it in the woods in various locations, in the crotch of a tree, on a patch of bare ground. And they come back to it later.

Well, sometimes they forget where they put it, and then somebody else gets to eat it! So they are basically taking your bird seed and distributing it throughout the woods for themselves and for others. "

"So they're helping everybody! "

"They are helping everybody. And they are beautiful, very smart birds, and one of the things about the way they transport seed, is that they are also important carriers of wild tree seeds, so they distribute tree seeds in ways that extend their range, for example oak trees, they carry acorns and that sort of thing, so they are fascinating birds."