Western Scrub-Jay Gallery

A western scrub-jay perches on the side of a tree

Bee Eater

Scrub jays do not belong to the class of birds known as bee-eaters that specialize in eating bees, but nonetheless this one had a strong predilection for them. A colony of bees had taken up residence in a cavity of this tree, and the jay used a nearby rock as a launching off point to fly in to snare one of the bees before returning to the rock to eat it.

Not much later the colony split and sent a swarm off to establish a new colony, so now the jay can dine out when the mood strikes.

A western scrub-jay perches on a grape vine

Gift of the Grapes

Our backyard isn't particularly bird friendly. I used to have grand ideas about photographing birds in the backyard, but if I was outside, usually the cats were too, so you can guess why I wasn't attracting too many birds no matter what the landscaping was like.

For a while, though, after digging up the grapes I kept some of the thicker stalks to use as perches near the bird feeders, and captured this scrub-jay as it came in to feed at one of the suet stations.

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