skip to main content

Wildlife Garden

Attracting Blue Jays, others

4 years ago

So I'm looking for help on two fronts-

1. Attracting blue jays

2. Properly inviting birds to eat meal worms.

For the blue jays, I have an elevated platform that I have painted blue and a pile of peanuts on. I know blue jays are in my area. People a few blocks away claim to have them everywhere. Hell, I don't think Creighton up the street would be named the Blue Jays if there weren't a few around. What else can I do?

For the meal worms, I have one of those feeders that looks like a house with plastic windows on either side keeping the food in and a cage at either end for suet. They love the suet, but have not taken from the feeder full of meal worms, nor when mixing the worms with something else to bring them in. Maybe the feeder is bad for worms? I don't know.

Sort by:Oldest

Comment (1)

Skip1909
4 years ago
Blue Jays like fruit, like black cherry, mulberry (plant a red mulberry if you go this route), blueberry, grape, and serviceberry. They like wooded edges and suburban settings. In the spring they, like most birds, raise their young on caterpillars, so plant some butterfly host plants. Native oak, birch, cherry, pine, apple, and maple trees are all good caterpillar hosts. Goldenrods, asters, eupatoriums, and wild strawberry are decent herbaceous host plants. Planting their preferred plants would be good although it wont be an instant fix, and you will also attract other larger critters interested in the fruit. All the birds enjoy sunflower seeds more than anything at my place. I mix the meal worms in with sunflower seeds but the birds dont really like them and I see them all over the ground around the feeder. Put your feeder near cover, like overhanging tree branches.
Related Discussions
HAVE: Bearded Irises Artic Express,Blue Jay Way,BlueEyedSusan
Q
Comments (2)
Hi Shirley! I would love to trade for some of your iris! I am open to any that you have listed as I have none of these and looking them up, realize I NEED them, lol! :) The list of iris I have to split right now is pretty long. So please check out my list and see if anything interests you. I also have: Coneflower: Ruby Giant Coneflower: White Swan Coneflower: Pow Wow Wildberry Hosta: First Frost Hosta: Honey Bell ...and some other things I can't think of right now to split. Just let me know what your interested in and I can narrow down my choices from there. :) Have a super day! vina ps. The mixed daylily seeds I got from you 2 years ago are flowering like crazy. They are ALL different and beautiful!! THANK YOU :D
...See More
blue danube -- blue jay
Q
Comments (4)
oh come on linda.. you arent looking very close... one has cordate leaves.. heart shaped ..... the other has longer leaves ... not quite so round .... and who has enough blues???? ken
...See More
Blue Jay Go Away
Q
Comments (10)
Hello All, I am new, but I will do what I usually do and jump in with both feet! I am happy that you are a peaceful man, hope that this helps. I don't know of a blue jay repellant, but I can offer some information for you in addition to that already provided by the others. I also came up with a couple of alternative bird you could dislike instead of the jay. One alternative is the Europian Starling, introduced by man, and began to spread over the whole country. They compete aggressively with native birds for nesting. Birds are in enough trouble from of loss of habitat from mankind. (you can prevent them from taking up residence in your birdhouses by making the entrance 1 1/2 " or less so they can't get inside the joint.) The Cowbird is another alternative to bluejay loathing. It sneaks into other bird's nests and lays it's eggs, making the other bird do all the work. The field guide called it parisitizing and the cowbird affects about 144 species altogether and some are threatened with extinction altogether. The cowbird is only doing what it has always done, only we changed the playing field and the combination is lethal. Back to the BlueJay. The jays fly around in courtship flocks in the spring follow the leader style and give a variety of calls. (acording to Stokes Field Guide these flocks are made up of several males and leading the way one female. When they land the males start bobbing raising their whole body up and down, while giving the "toolool" call. Good News, they are quiet during breeding. They also dive bomb hawks giving jay calls. I don't know if a "scarehawk" would work, it would scare off the other birds too and you don't want that. One more thing you could try, is to lure the jay to another area of your yard. The jay eats acorns, nuts, fruit, and it comes to feeders for sunflower seed and cracked corn. You could put sunflower seed (black oil I think) and cracked corn on a feeder away from your window. That might work. Good luck to you, I hope I wasn't too long winded for you all. Happy Birding! Bitsy In the end, I would say the best thing to do is to get some earplugs and find some common ground. You could even learn to not despise the jay.
...See More
Another Great Feeder Day; Eye-popping blue jay shot
Q
Comments (4)
Wonderful! You sure are quick with your camera. And so lucky - it seems your birds trust you. :) I especially like the ones where the bluejay and the titmouse have a seed in the beak. And the song sparrow - there is something about a bird with his mouth open that moves me. ~JoAnn
...See More

Related Stories

BLUE Opposites Attract: Orange and Blue

By Becky Harris

This No-Fail Color Combination Works With Every Design Style

COLOR 10 Ways to Add Blue to a Kitchen — and 10 Blues Worth Considering

By Jennifer Ott Design

Here are kitchen features to think about painting blue and beautiful blue paints for creating a stylish space

COLOR Opposites Attract: Complementary Color Combos

By Susan Redman

Use the power couples of the color wheel — blue and orange, purple and yellow, red and green — to spice up any decor scheme

COLOR Duck Egg Blue, the Friendliest Color Around

This appealing hue transcends trends, spans styles and gets along with many other colors. Could it be right for one of your rooms?

GARDENING FOR BIRDS Backyard Birds: Meet Some Clever and Curious Jays

By Habitat Network

Boisterous jays provide plenty of backyard bird-watching in winter. Here’s how to identify all the varieties and welcome them into your yard

FALL GARDENING 6 Splendid Blue-Flowering Bulbs

By Therese Ciesinski

How do you blue? With colors from sky to cobalt, these bulbs will greet you merrily in a spring garden

KITCHEN DESIGN Kitchen of the Week: Bright Space With a Bold Blue Island

By Becky Harris

For soon-to-be empty nesters, a designer creates a white, wood and blue kitchen accented with woven textiles

GARDENING GUIDES These Hummingbird-Attracting Native Plants May Surprise You

By Susan J Tweit

These flowers, vines and shrubs offer shelter and food supplies that keep hummingbirds around longer

GARDENING GUIDES Backyard Birds: Northern Cardinals in the Snow, and Other Red Birds

By Habitat Network

Brilliant crimson feathers make these friends stand out in a crowd

COLOR 6 Attractive Pink Paint Colors for the Kitchen

By Jennifer Ott Design

From soft petal pinks to fearless fuchsias, these stylish hues can dress up the room

Sponsored

More Discussions

Two new species at feeder!

2

Starlings and grackles have discovered my feeders, are decimating suet

0