xIf you enjoy feeding birds this time of year but don’t like to see dozens of aggressive blue jays keep other birds from getting their share, consider this rather simple solution. When it comes to blue jays, my own feeders were overrunning with them this fall and early winter. We have a flock of at least 25 of them that come every morning and typically don’t leave until they had vacuumed up almost every seed.
I’ve been feeding cracked corn for several years to try to distract the jays from the more expensive sunflower seeds, but the combination of sunflower seeds and cracked corn just seemed to bring ever more blue jays to our yard. They’ve made it difficult for less aggressive birds, like pine grosbeaks and chickadees to get anywhere near the feeders.
Recently, I found a way to keep the blue jays in check enough to allow other birds a chance. I started putting the foods that blue jays like— cracked corn with a few sunflower seeds and peanuts mixed in— in another part of the yard, scattered on the ground at least 40 feet from the feeders that hang near our picture windows.
We have just as many blue jays in the yard as before, but now they spend most of their seed-gobbling time over at the alternative site and my chickadees, nutchatches, and grosbeaks are able to find their place at the feeder without being overwhelmed by all the jays. We still get jays at the regular feeders, but now they come in ones and twos, not dozens at a time. It’s an example of diversionary feeding and I’ve found it to be an excellent solution to my daily blue jay invasion. They’ve gone from being totally out of control to manageable, with just one simple change.