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 <[email protected]> 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 <[email protected]> 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 <[email protected]> >> 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 [email protected]. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> 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 [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. 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.
