How Does Our Environment Benefit from Blue Jays?

What is so great about the Blue Jay bird? I am sure you have heard a lot of negative "smack "about Blue Jays and some that is well deserved. For instance, they are aggressive birds by nature. Maybe they remind us humans of ourselves? They will steal other bird's nest eggs and consume their nestlings. Ok, I'm not saying humans will go to that extreme, however maybe the aggressive part is true. Many people think Blue Jays as unwanted birds, "weed birds". They will drive bird watchers crazy with the way they can imitate other bird calls. Yet, as mean as they might appear, Blue Jays' bad reputation may not be totally well merited when you consider what they really do for our environment.

Blue Jays are beautiful birds, but they are Mother Nature's industrious farmers. Blue Jays do love to eat acorns. However, not only do they just harvest those acorns for their own needs, they also help grow Oak trees with their incredible planting skills. Now, I'm not saying they dig a hole, plant an acorn in the ground, put soil on it, and sprinkle it with water. What they do is they perform this planting feat in a couple of ways.

One way is from an airlifting of acorns and dropping them from the sky. Many times the acorns are planted in the ideal spot for growing an oak tree. Blue Jays only select healthy acorns that are free from pests. Actually, I have read they have 88% accuracy for this. According to an article by Carter Johnson an d Curtis Adkisson called "Airlifting the Oaks", they documented the abilities of eastern Blue Jays planting skills. They found that fifty Blue Jays transported a hidden supply of 150,000 acorns in twenty eight days which is about 110 acorns per day for each bird! According to an article I found on Oak Woodland Wildlife, the author stated that he observed two Blue Jays one day in his back yard moving one hundred and fourty acorns from the Blue Jays caching site in just 75 minutes: which comes out to one acorn every 28 seconds!

Another way they plant acorns is by burying it under grass or in soft soil, covering it with a bit of plant debris. They instinctively know the right type of soil consistency to be successful with germination of a tree.

Besides being responsible for planting oak trees, they are also credited with germinating the beech, and chestnut forests in the wake of retreating glaciers as the ice age ended.

Blue Jays also provide a "heads up" to other songbirds by squawking out warnings whenever any danger appears in their area. You might say they are nature's siren alarm for our forest critters.

Personally, I enjoy Blue Jays all year round especially in the winter time. During the winter time when the trees are bare and the grass is brown, my Blue Jays stand out because of their deep blue color. Sometimes, that is all it takes to brighten up a dreary winter day.