Thanks for taking your time to provide this valuable and intriguing answer, Nathan. Joe
On Tue, Jul 9, 2019 at 6:21 AM Nathan Pieplow <npiep...@gmail.com> wrote: > Jace, > > The rattle calls of jays have been shown to be given by females, usually > dominant females. If they are ever given by males, it's apparently very > rare. So this sounds to me like a case of a dominant female asserting her > dominance at your feeder. > > eBird and Audubon don't have this kind of detailed information on bird > behavior. The place to get that is the Birds of North America online, which > is a subscription service. > > Another good resource is petersonbirdsounds.com, the website that > accompanies my Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds. There you can listen to > examples of the Blue Jay rattle calls, among many other sounds the species > makes. (There is even an example of a Blue Jay imitation of a Cooper's > Hawk, to tie in an earlier COBirds thread.) > > On Mon, Jul 8, 2019, 9:28 AM Joe Roller <jroll...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Jace, >> Layman's answer = educated guess. >> Many species have a pecking order, with more dominant and more submissive >> members, as you know. >> Most birds, especially males, defend breeding territories, again, common >> knowledge. >> Some have more loosely defined winter feeding territories, which they may >> defend, usually not >> as vigorously. >> That Blue Jay behavior seems to be a dominant male (OR FEMALE) defending >> a food supply. >> The rattling sound and bouncing movements I assume are "threat displays" >> like human males "putting up their fists"or shouting or standing taller. >> Nathan Pieplow describes a Blue Jay rattle "all year" by females" on p >> 307, "Peterson field guide to bird sounds of western North America" but >> males vocalizations are highly variable, so not sure of gender of your jay. >> >> Joe Roller, Denver >> Cool observation. Try to record it next time. >> And give details of behavior in a comment section or your eBird report >> for that day. >> >> >> On Mon, Jul 8, 2019 at 8:14 AM Jace Wesley Brasher <vwj...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >>> Hello, this morning I experienced a male blue jay protecting a tree from >>> other males. After he had won the battle he went to the feeder got some >>> peanuts and went back to his tree. As he sat at the very top of the tree he >>> started to bounce up and down and make a rattling sound. I have never seen >>> anything like this before, even after 14 years of watching them. Does >>> anyone know why he was doing this? Why is it not on ebird or Audubon? >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "Colorado Birds" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAP7yTyhVk-hT-cVmU2vOXUnJE_53jrzWoR%3D5wL8f5_LggMhFYw%40mail.gmail.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAP7yTyhVk-hT-cVmU2vOXUnJE_53jrzWoR%3D5wL8f5_LggMhFYw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAFhaDVJVNpO1nJPvVp3tDL8kv_E7Gn88SpdsPheYg5iSw8yA4Q%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAFhaDVJVNpO1nJPvVp3tDL8kv_E7Gn88SpdsPheYg5iSw8yA4Q%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAJpZcUDMG2%3DYM9BGi%2BmLxXv6T%2Bi8Z8XcXEg7unukoZuvppc_dA%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
