I've seen crows actively hunting baby rabbits, baby squirrels and mice in our St. Paul yard and alley. I'd known that jays will kill other birds' young, so it seems not surprising that they'd also hunt rodents for animal protein during nesting season. Linda Whyte
On Thu, Jun 4, 2015 at 12:42 PM, Jason Caddy <[email protected]> wrote: > Two days ago I was out in front of my house with my two children and > noticed that a Blue Jay was showing interesting behavior. It was perched on > a crabapple branch and kept jumping to the ground and then back up to the > branch in an area of shrubs and hostas. Eventually the Blue Jay flew up to > the branch carrying a baby rabbit that was probably a little larger than a > chicken egg. I was with my children so I didn't get a chance to go see what > happened immediately afterwards. About an hour later I went out to get > something from my car and there was the Blue Jay perched in a Honey Locust > tree devouring the baby rabbit. The Blue Jays in my neighborhood are > generally quite wary and will not allow close approach but this bird seemed > highly focused on it's meal. > On 5/23/15 I was hiking up the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park > in Texas and noticed a Mexican Jay doing almost exactly the same thing as > the Blue Jay. It was perched on a branch then fluttered to the ground and > back up again. It repeated the behavior several times until it started > tugging on something under a fern which turned out to be a small rabbit. > The Mexican Jay ended up leaving the rabbit on the ground, probably because > it was too big to kill and eat. At that time I was shocked to see this > behavior in a jay but after seeing the smaller Blue Jay do the same thing > makes me think it is likely a common behavior in jays. > I really love seeing avian predation in Minneapolis because it reminds me > that the animals around us, even in a big city, are going through the > struggles of survival just as animals in wilderness areas are. > > Cheers, > > Jason Caddy > Minneapolis > [email protected] > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
