I recently watched a "Nature" program about the intelligence of birds in the corvid family -- jays, crows, ravens, and magpies. The program focused on crows. You can see the program in its entirety at the Nature web site: http://to.pbs.org/93LQ5C. It's well-worth watching. Crows are very, very smart. I'm trying to figure out how I can test them here in our yard; three American Crows are frequent morning visitors. In the meantime, I'm testing the Blue Jays that come to our feeders. Some of the dog kibble I put out for the jays (see below) is contained beneath an upended small clear-plastic jar. You can see the food, and I assume the jays can, too. The jay have to move the jar to get that kibble. I've attached the jar to the feeder with a length of string so the jar doesn't get carried off. For two days the jar sat untouched. This morning it had been tipped over, the kibble taken. I didn't see it happen, though, so I don't know how or who. I've reset the test. I'm keeping an eye on it. Photo below: a group of crows drinking from a puddle.
First visitors
The first birds I saw in our yard Sunday morning appeared at 7:39, 11 minutes before sunrise. Two chickadees were hopping about in one of trees outside our bedroom windows. Within five minutes I also had seen two White-breasted Nuthatches, a Blue Jay, a Northern Cardinal, and a Red-bellied Woodpecker. By the time the sun could be seen on the treetops in our backyard, only the jay remained. Grackles appeared about 8:20, but the smaller birds were somewhere else. We have three jays that spend much time each day at our feeders. I'm putting dog kibble on our platform feeder. The jays work hard until they've taken it all and cached it somewhere in the neighborhood. They're laying in supplies for winter.
