Blue Jr.

~ The appearance of Blue ~

Several weeks ago, Mom told me about a blue jay (western scrub jay, officially) that had started visiting. "There it is!" she said. I turned to see it in the backyard, its neck long and alert, staring at the sliding glass doors. Mom had bought a quart-sized bag of pinenuts from CostCo for salads, but now it was becoming blue jay food, too. She sprinkled a handful on the outside mat and then backed away. He'd come grab one and toss his head back to swallow it whole. Or he'd take one, two or three in his mouth and fly off to bury them in the yard or in potted plants.

Mom speculated that it was the same blue jay that her neighbor and dear friend Marilou used to feed by hand.

There were times that the jay would show up at the glass doors, looking for a handout. It would back away when Mom dropped off the goods and move in when she stepped back. With time, Mom was able to stay with seeds on palm held at ground level and the bird would skittishly grab a seed and bolt away. [Click for larger image.] To my delight, the bird quickly extended the same trust to me and soon was taking seeds from my palm.

Mom nicknamed the bird Blue.

~ Lofty goals ~

Mom observed the jay flying to a particular tree repeatedly and concluded that there was a nest. I eventually saw a slenderer blue jay, slightly more grayish, keeping its distance, staying pretty close to the tree. The female.

In the meantime, Blue was getting braver. If the screen door was open, he'd stand on the threshold. Mom was away when I tried tossing some nuts on the floor. What a crack up. His claws would click-click on the hardwood floor as he did his blue jay hop toward the food. As soon as he grabbed the seed, he'd do his best to bolt out to the safety of outdoors, which invariably started with sliding on the slick floor until his wings gave him the lift he needed.

Mom soon was inviting the hopping bird into the house to fetch nuts, too. Blue was also beginning to hang around for more seeds in her hand, not just quickly flying away.

It was on the trip to Canada in 1980 (when I first started phooning) that I saw a ground squirrel duck back into its burrow (no, not a duck, a squirrel) and I slowly approached the area with a handful of nuts and, after about 20 minutes of patient squatting, and slow motion placement of nuts, had the little guy sitting on my knee munching on a nut. Satisfying to build that trust. Also on that trip, we arrived at some Canadian mountain lookout and Mom told me to hold my palm high with a nut in it and wait for a whiskey jack to come swoop and take it. (Yikes! It came from behind, so I didn't see it coming and it startled me.) So, I set a new goal: get Blue to take food from my hand, held high.

~ The appearance of Blue Jr. ~

Mom mentioned one day that she'd spotted a baby blue jay. I carefully
walked around the area under where the neighbor's pepper tree hung over Mom's yard. Yep, there was the baby peering through a bush.

Whenever I have been near the baby, the mother bird screeches. Early on, if the baby was under the less-protective rose bushes and I showed up in the yard, either parent bird would fly to a nearby spot and give out one of two sounds: an upward shriek (the annoying one we most readily associate with jays) or a quieter cluck-chirp. It was a treat to observe the baby's understanding of the cluck-chirp, as it would bolt in the direction of the parent for cover.

When I feed the papa bird, I make a clicking sound with my tongue or squeaking by sucking between my teeth and lower lip. Not that those mean anything whatsoever in bird language, but he must by now have a strong association of those sounds and Food.

I and several others were watching monkeys leap around playfully in a cage at the San Francisco Zoo. I tried patting the guard rail, said "C'm'ere" a few times to try to get them closer. A Vietnamese lady next to me called out to the monkeys, also vying for their attention. She called out in Vietnamese. My immediate thought was that "monkeys don't know Vietnamese; you're supposed to call to them in English!"

If I was close to Jr., the papa bird was less likely to come take food from me. But he just loves pinenuts, so he's ready to do a snatch and run if a seed is tossed nearby. Thus I started feeding Blue in Blue Jr's presence, hoping to show Jr. I was okay.

And July 6 arrived. Time to fly to Oregon for my niece's wedding and catch up with Mom who'd headed up earlier.

~ Progress ~

The next morning after returning home, I rushed to feed Blue. Yep, he was interested in being fed. Working toward the goal of hand held aloft, I held my hand up off the ground a couple of feet. Blue would fly, grab the nut and kick off of the side of my hand. After many repeats of that, I held my hand at birdbath height. Blue would fly to the bath and peer, then fly to my hand and do his grab/kick off thing.

Blue now recognized the little measuring cup in which we kept the pinenuts. Showing or shaking that would bring him closer from across the yard. So, I sat cross-legged on the ground and put the cup in my palms and covered over the top of it a little with my fingers. Blue couldn't just grab and run, I thought. Are all jays curious creatures? He seemed to wriggle at my having this hidden treasure. To my delight, he hopped up on my arm. A significant first! And then he stood on my hand and grabbed a seed out. Excited, I got my camera and tripod and recreated the moment. In the pic, you can see how he grabbed one seed then grabbed another, stocking up. (This is what he does when seed burying will follow.) The next step toward my hand-aloft goal was to hold the cup out, still covered with fingers. More progress: Blue flew to my hand and poked between my fingers to get to the cup. Still not officially meeting my goal, but a good step in that direction.

~ Extra nourishment ~

Blue Jr. was up and about more. While I couldn't feed Jr., I could get nearby and hang out without him running off, most of the time. Eventually, a parent would cluck-chirp nearby and off he'd go. But there were many times I was able to get close to Jr. and feed the father. I observed that the father was taking many seeds directly to shove down Jr's throat. If I offered Jr. a seed, he didn't find it of interest.

When I told friend Greg about the birds, he told me he used to have one in his house as a pet. He'd raised one from a chick, feeding it ground meat and milk. Hmm! So, the next day, I cut up some raw chicken and offered that to Blue. Blue readily pulled it apart and flew over to Jr. to cram that down his throat.

A heat wave hit. Jr. didn't look so good. His eyes would close. He was not as responsive to his parents' squawks. I got a plastic syringe with water and gently grabbed the bird and worked water into his system. The next day, he looked better, thankfully. [Later, I read that I shouldn't have done this. The bird's breathing passage is under its tongue and I risked getting water into his lungs.]

This is the time of year when June bugs come buzzing out at dusk. I had noticed that morning that Blue was very eager to be fed. I opened the sliding glass door and then headed for the kitchen to get more pinenuts, hoping Blue might comfortably follow me in. I observed Blue peering to his right, inside the glass door. I figured he was just hoping for stray pinenuts. But when I approached the glass door, I saw a dried up June bug. I picked it up and offered it to him, and he readily crunched and swallowed it and then flew to Jr. and gave it to him. Aha! That night, I captured a live June bug, a juicy miller moth, and a black beetle. The next morning, I jiggled the jar in the air for Blue. "Look what *I've* got!" When I put the June bug out, BANG, Blue was on it. I held the miller; BANG, Blue put that one down, too. I tossed the black beetle out and it crawled away. Blue looked elsewhere. Note to self: Pinenuts are candy for blue jays; black beetles are Brussels sprouts. I gave him a pinenut. He flew off to Jr.

~ Success! ~

Scott and Joanne were in town after the Oregon wedding. Scott heard about my technique of holding the cup with fingers covering the seed and got Blue on his hand, too. Scott told me of another time when Scott was just sitting there with no food and Blue hopped up on him in search of food.

That brought to mind a few more ideas. I held up a seed so that Blue could see it and then made a slow motion of placing it on my head so that Blue knew exactly where it went. I also held my hand nearby as a familiar object. He jumped from nearby awning to my hand to my head.

I had joked the day before about getting him to eat one from between my lips. Why not? I laid down and put one pinenut on my chest and one between my lips. Blue was fairly quick about getting the one on my chest. I could feel his tentative little steps forward as he determined how far from my face he could stay and still reach the pinenut. And he grabbed it.

Gee, if the bird was now that comfortable with being on humans, might it be comfortable enough to fly to my raised hand and stand there to eat food? At ground level, I shoved a pinenut in the crotch between two fingers and showed it to Blue. I held my hand near the birdbath. He flew to the birdbath and then jumped to my hand, stood and ate. Good.

I repeated, this time holding my hand high above my head. He flew up and stood there, eating the seed. Success!

Cathy was visiting. I asked her to take a photo of this milestone. She had a better idea. You can see the result here.

~ Instinct without a clue ~

Each day is fun right now with Jr. showing some kind of advancement. Where he did not recognize a seed before, now he had the instinct to grasp. That's good! Unfortunately, with seed now in mouth, he had no clue what to do with it. Blue swung by, took it from him, then crammed it down his throat.

But the next day, he had the instinct to tear a bit from the pinenut as I gripped it, and he worked the bit down his throat with his tongue. He didn't yet know about the toss-the-head-back motion. But he'd eaten something without having Blue shove it down his throat. Yay!

Unfortunately, he had not yet developed adequate pecking ability. He showed ability to peck, but it was pointless pecking. He'd start off right, grabbing a bit of seed from me and dropping some of it. To pick up the bit that fell, he'd start pecking at whatever was nearby. Chunks of dirt, mainly. The bark of the rose bush. That was my favorite: wham wham wham on the rose bush, like a woodpecker.

Next, he realized his foot was one of his tools for eating. He'd take a whole seed from me and, being an oily seed, it would get stuck on his beak. He leaned down and used his foot to pry it off and to hold it while he tore bits off. And then he'd be back to eating dirt again. He had not yet learned to find a clean place to eat his food. So, I got out a metal pan and crushed up some pinenut so he could just stand there and eat, eat, eat. Invariably, a parent would show up and chirp him away to some other area. I'd leave the bits for whichever bird got to it next.

Blue has the pinenut swallowing thing down, jerking his head in a way that gets the nut airborne and then lunging to bypass tongue and get the thing right into his throat. Jr. has done that perhaps 5 times, as of July 22. Most of the time, Jr. smashes the pinenuts. Seems to me that he is still learning how hard to chomp down on the pinenuts, for bits often shoot away from his beak and he's not aware that his meal shrank. Another typical problem is that the pinenut, an oily item, gets stuck to his beak and he has to pry it off with his foot.

Blue Jr's take-from-another instinct is strong. When presented with a pile of pinenut bits and some bits between my finger tips, he'll go for the bits between my finger tips.

~ Recognized provider ~

By July 16, Blue Jr. had clearly had made the connection between me and food. He was more likely to come to me, instead of the other way around. I opened the glass door and Jr. ran, with wings raised, across the lawn to me. (He cried out with wide open mouth and fluttered his wings, begging for food.)

July 20 was a scorching day. I left the windows open that night to cool things off. I was awakened at 6 am by the screeching of the jay parents and of Blue Jr. What the heck, why not feed them. So, I opened the glass door and went to the kitchen to get some more pinenuts. Blue hopped onto the threshold. I tossed a nut onto the floor and he came and got that and flew out. His flying out drew Blue Jr. from his "feed me!" spot at the edge of the grass. He ran/flew to the doorstep to take the pinenut from papa bird, but papa bird had no plans of giving it to Jr. Jr. then quickly turned to run/fly in and, to my surprise, hopped directly onto the footrest next to me, squawking the entire time. He had never been up there and I had not even put a pinenut up there, so I don't know what he did that! Man, he must've been really hungry. He was in a frenzy, squealing the whole time he jabbing at the nuts, trying to pull bits off ones he stood on. I added to his frenzy by dropping a few extra nuts at his feet. Fun to overwhelm him. He continued his squealing.
Click for movie

~ Flight ~

If you consider chickens to be able to fly, then Jr. flew some time ago. This was after I had started following him around the yard and also before he started eating pinenuts. I cornered him and picked him up. Once he was on my hand, he didn't do much but sit in a contented-looking way (was his heartbeat racing, though?). At some point, he hopped off my hand. My guess is that he'd never tried his wings before this. He was good at hopping, but that's all I'd seen before, hopping. He flapped his little wings and the best he could achieve was a downhill line. It would make chickens proud.

His ability has improved. He is more likely to combine flight and running to traverse the yard quickly. His jumps upward are assisted by wing power. On July 20, he gave flight a good effort, taking off from lap and heading for the roses against the fence. The flight path was steady and not downward-chicken-like, so that was good, but it was also straight at a blank part of the fence. He didn't descend to his normal spot under the roses nor rise to the top of the fence. He just plowed into the boards--thud--and, plop, he was back on the ground and made his way to his favorite spot under the roses.

On July 22, he followed a similar flight path. This time, he swerved upward and landed on top of the fence. Yay! Oh, but now he was that much closer to disappearing into the neighbor's yard. I ran to get some pinenuts to lure him back. When I returned, he was in the neighbor's bush next to and above the fence. But pinenuts are candy, so he was soon back on this side.

~ A new discovery: water ~

The temperature has been around 95 to 100 for a few days. A couple times before, I'd used the plastic syringe to feed Jr. water. This time, I thought I'd put him in the birdbath and see if he'd drink water on his own. Remember: his normal nourishment and hydration would otherwise be completely via parent bird regurgitating nuts and bugs. He had had no practice drinking water.

I remember reading that pigeons are one of the few birds that can completely drink via suction, that is, without scooping up water and throwing the head back to get the water down the throat.

Jr. was now standing in the birdbath and staring blankly (as if I know what a blank blue jay stare looks like). So, I tapped my finger on the water to break up the reflection and show there was a surface to this thing. Jr. stared. Jr. finally bit the water, I suppose because of my now-familiar motion of tapping where I'd placed food. He stood upright and moved his beak like he was nibbling a nut. He bit the water again, chewed that and swallowed. It was about the fifth time that his natural drinking ability awoke. He plunged his beak into the water and held it there, then lifted his head to swallow the bigger mouthful. Either he was parched or he was delighted at his new ability (as was I) for he must've done that twenty times. (Ok, he was parched.) In my excitement, I said "That's right...good job!" (In Vietnamese.)

I was excited that he'd drunk water. That would have been enough! I was treated to more. It *was* a hot day. This *was* a birdbath. Jr.'s wing tips hung down enough to touch the water. I'm trying to think of how to describe the transformation I got to observe. It was like a scene from a movie where the character's memory is coming back and life is becoming beautiful and joyful again. This bird seemed to stare and think as it was sitting in the water. It was mainly working on taking more drinks. But it also seemed to be becoming aware that there was something good about feeling water on its wings and on its face. It lowered its wings and flipped its wings a bit. It went for another drink of water and also put its face in a bit deeper. I was watching the bird morph from taking a drink to taking a bath; right now it was the blur in the middle between the two. It wasn't long before Jr. was flipping his wings a little bit more, plunging his head again, flipping his wings a little bit more. I was all smiles. He had now gotten to the point of squatting to really get wet and rising to shake his little body and butt to expel the water. I had the camera in movie mode by now and laughed at having water flung on me. At one point, his newfound spin cycle tipped him onto one leg, to his surprise.
Click for bath movie, part 1
Click for bath movie, part 2

Hey, this guy still has a bunch of chick fluff. Bathing for him turned him into a miniature soggy down jacket. Dusk was upon us. The squawks of his parents compelled him to leave the birdbath. He didn't leave too well. He weighed more; his wings didn't work the same when soggy. He was back to chicken flight, landing several feet short of his target.

~ Where Jr. goes at night ~

There were at least four nights before when I'd gone out with a flashlight to search the ground and bushes for Blue Jr. Where on earth did he go at night? He'd be an easy target for cats if he just crawled under a bush. But I never found him.

This was the first time in a while that I'd been home before dark. I was about to find out where the little guy went at night. His soggy wings were part of my finding out.

Jr. hopped across the lawn to the base of a young tree whose lowest branch is about 2' off the ground. He tried to jump-fly up to the branch. Weighted down, he only got about 4" off the ground. He kept trying, though. And his parents kept squawking. To me, these squawks sound the same as all their other squawks. The same-sounding squawk might send Jr. scurrying for cover, or running to meet the parent at the end of the yard. Now, it compelled Blue Jr. to get into the little avocado tree. But he couldn't get into it, so he wandered around through other bushes. I remained seated on the lawn, adjusting my position as needed to observe where he went for the night.

Jr. came out of the bushes near the glass doors. He looked at me on the lawn. I didn't click my tongue or pat my leg to call him over. He skittered over and hopped up on my leg. Then he checked out his options and scrambled up onto my shirt pocket and then up onto my shoulder. Ha! What a surprise.

He was still thinking food, I suspect. I turned my head to look at the funny guy on my shoulder. He gave a light peck at the corner of my eyelid. Yikes! For a little while after that, I kept that eye closed tightly when turning his direction. Hmm...that also made it a wee bit harder to see him. But he figured out quickly enough that my eyelid was not a pinenut and didn't do it again.

His parents continued their squawking. It grew darker. Eventually, they stopped squawking. I thought it was as if they were yelling, "Bedtime! Bedtime!" all of this time and then finally went to bed themselves and gave up on Jr.

I figured if Jr. had tried to get into the avocado tree, that was probably where he wanted to go. So I took him over and set him on a branch about 5' off the ground.

A couple of hours later, I went out with flashlight to see what he looked like. He was fast asleep, with beak tucked into armpit (or maybe his head slept elsewhere). Occasionally, he'd stretch out all claws on his left foot and then regrasp the branch. A little while later, he'd straighten the claws on his right foot and then regrasp. He did this a few times over several minutes, without showing signs of being awake.

~ Departure and arrival ~

July 22. Blue Jr. disappeared for the night over the back fence. Right now, that's fine: the neighbors are gone. That means that Blue Jr. has not yet had to risk being near the young boy and the dog.

July 23. The birds were back. But they remained hidden most of the day because of th heat. They'd sit with their beaks open, aiding their cooling system. I put a tray of water in the shade near Jr. Both he and Blue drank from it on occasion.

Mom returned from her 2-3 weeks in Oregon and we took off for the mall to get a break from the heat. We returned later in the day while there was still light and Mom got to feed Jr. by hand.

We talked about what we might say to the neighbors when they return from their trip for Jr's sake.

~ Bury stuff ~

A new instinct is kicking in for Jr.: bury things. I gave him a pinenut and he shoved it into the dirt so that half of it remained exposed. Then he stared blankly elsewhere. Huh?

Later, I saw him pick up the half shell of something (kinda looked like a pistachio shell) and toss it around to get it reoriented in his mouth I guess, and then he shoved that in the ground partway, and that was that. Ok then!

~ Injured ~

July 24, near midnight. I was working on this post in a room whose window was open to the backyard. I heard a long wild shriek which I immediately knew was Jr. in trouble. I rushed outside with flashlight to find Jr. sitting on the cement facing the garden. As I approached him, he tried to fly over the lawn to the bushes. His flight was weak. I searched around the yard for a cat or anything, finding nothing. Jr. worked his way through the bushes, attempting to gain height, occasionally. I crawled back behind and found him on a branch just a half foot off the ground. Constantly speaking calmly, I moved in closer, often shining the flashlight on myself in case that helped him recognize me and somehow feel better. He fluttered to attempt to get to a better branch but didn't get far. I was able to get him onto my finger and lift him to a higher branch in that bush. I didn't see any evidence of injury. I went back inside. The branch I had selected was a compromise: I was concerned that if I tried to take him to a better branch, he might bolt and end up over the fence or in whatever more vulnerable location. I didn't like leaving him there. So, I headed back out to the bush.

The branch I'd put him on enabled me to check under him; I found a cut. Sigh. I coaxed him onto my finger again and was able to get him across the yard and into the avocado tree, which to me felt far safer than other options. I heard rustling in the big bush that I suspect he had been in when injured. Sounded like a rat up high near the phone line. Do rats attack young birds? That would be fitting, if so. If it had been a cat, I don't think I would've found Jr. sitting out on the cement.

Now it's just a waiting game. An internet page notes that a bird may look fine 24 hours after injury only to succomb to bacterial infection soon after. Sigh.

1:15 am. The internet page also talked about use of antibiotics. When I remembered that there was some antibacterial ointment in the cupboard, I wondered whether to just let things be or to try something. I guess this was like the time earlier when I felt the little guy needed water; I thought that at least *I* would feel better about having applied ointment to the wound. So, I went out and got the bird on my finger. I slowly made my way to the smallest room in the house, the bathroom, and closed the door. Maybe I'll add more detail later, but basically I got some goo on and took the bird back out to its perch.

~ Waiting ~

July 25 morning. I couldn't find Jr. I heard a parent jay squawking a house away, so I wandered that direction. Eventually, I heard the normal faint reply of Jr. to his parents' call and followed that to find Jr. on the roof of the house next door, hopping about, even flying to a nearby tree. There's a darker area on Jr's underside which I am pretty sure is just the ointment having darkened the feathers, like the mark left on a piece of paper from a cookie crumb as the oil spreads.

July 25 later morning. I saw Blue feeding Blue Jr. Glad to see the parent still showing great care for the young one.

July 25, 9:30 pm. (Yay! Nice to be home. It took about 3 hours, start to finish, to get to a store and back and replace the radiator hose that had blown this morn just before I pulled into work.) Mom reported that she fed Blue and Blue Jr. Blue Jr. stayed primarily in the bush area, not flying. My guess is that he's minimizing the flying to let his chest heal up. I was glad to hear that she'd gotten to enjoy feeding Jr. again and to also hear that Blue was continuing to feed Jr.

July 26 morning. Jr. was on the ground...but after being fed and approached, he hopped up into branches quickly, even flew to a nearby fence. So, strength is returning, perhaps. Last night, I caught a miller moth. I offered it to Jr. He pecked it and it fell to the ground and he didn't know what else to do with that. Later, I guess. So, I gave it to the father bird.

July 29. In the last few days, we've seen Jr. perched in the tree of its birth for bedtime, drinking from the bird bath, running around the rose bushes by the edge of the lawn, and flying here and there. So, he has increased in flying strength. He also looks skinnier, which I hope is just part of becoming a gawky teenager.




However, he has been very reluctant to come get food. I only heard/saw the mother jay at first (it squawked continually for an hour from its perch on the top of the utility pole). Finally, I saw Jr. way back in the bushes and when I made my way toward him, he kept his distance. Seems like either something happened this morning with predators or Jr. is just more skittish after being injured. Mom found a little bird, belly on the ground. We figured it was injured (by something?). I approached it and it flew away. Didn't look right. So, again, I wonder if a predator had hit the area and all birds were on alert.

~ Enter the peanuts ~

Mom and her sister-in-law thoroughly enjoyed a peanut dispenser that my brother-in-law Dan had made and hung at his place in Oregon while Mom was there after the wedding. Dan surprised Mom and Charlotte by making feeders for each of them to take home. So, it was time to try it out.



I didn't know if Blue would recognize peanuts in a cage like that, so I figured we should do this in steps, like put out a peanut by itself, then put a peanut near the cage on the ground, then see if Blue takes from the cage on the ground, then hang the cage and let Blue have at it.

We tossed a peanut out on the cement. Bang! Blue grabbed it and flew off. Marilou must've fed it peanuts before. He knew its worth.

We put the cage on the ground with a couple peanuts on the base of the cage. Blue didn't quite get the cage thing, but he gladly took the peanuts laying on the base.



A couple of days later, Mom saw Blue on the hung cage, tugging with all his might on some peanuts. So, he gets it.

~ And the days go by ~

July 31. Blue Jr. isn't too bright right now. He carried around an empty snail shell and worked on burying it.

He now sleeps high up in the big pepper tree from which he fell several weeks back. His parents are back in charge. :)

Aug 2. We don't see the birds much now. Yesterday, Jr. found a spot in the sun and stretched his wings out. I took photos while walking toward him. He flew off when I got this close.

Aug 8. In the last 5 days, I have only seen one blue jay once, and it flew quickly to the pepper tree; I don't know which one it was. Kinda sad for me--I'd hoped to have two birds hanging around now. But it's basically zero blue jays now--and about 15 nervous finches that bolt as a noisy group when you look at them. So, it was a treat to see a note from Mom today that Blue Jr. had come all the way in on his own to get seeds. Of course, I wish I could've seen that myself, but good news is good news.

[check for new movie links above, in the sections on Recognized Provider and Water]