My neighbor claims blue jays are a 'pest 'bird. Do you agree?

The Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) is actually a member of the Crow (Corvidae) family. All crows eat meat, some more than others. Although Blue Jays eat about 3 times as much plant matter as it does meat, a large part of their diet is made up of other animals such as mice, fish, bats and other small birds. Yes, Blue Jays on occasion do plunder other birds’ nests. As far as birds go, the Blue Jay gets a bad rap. Bright, brash, aggressive, they stand out in a crowd. “Bully,” “thief,” and “murderer” are among the nicer names for blue jays you might hear in boutiques that cater to backyarders, selling feeders that supposedly fend off jays and other large birds like grackles (as well as squirrels). The idea, of course, is to save expensive seed offerings for favored chickadees, titmice, cardinals, and finches.

Never cared much for Jays. As far as the bird feeder went, one year we had a Mocking Bird that would chase off other birds. Sat on TV arial above the chimney most of the winter. Granny put leftover bread and veggies in the feeder.

My father can tell you blue jays are downright MEAN. I mean...seriously....mean. When I was small, he was out in my grandfather's nursery patch and I was sitting on the grass watching him work. He took his cap off to wipe the sweat from his brow and a couple blue jays attacked him (my father was balding at the time) and repeatedly pecked at his head, leaving him with many bleeding areas. To this day, my father has no use for the blue jays and he is such a bird lover. He has built many houses and feeders and has them in the field next to his home. He just can't abide the jays after that.

Yes, they can be mean, but I guess I am lucky, all the other birds, including the morning doves chase them away if they become annoying. We have 6 seed feeders and 5 hummingbird feeders and rarely is there a problem. Could just be my location too.

I feed sunflower seeds only and have around ten feeders spread around. We see a little bit of everything from little Carolina Chickadees to Pileated Woodpeckers. Yesterday when the "Squadron", as I call the BlueJays, arrived, there were easily 20 to 25, very unusual as it is usually 5 to 7. I throw raw peanuts for the Jays and taking those peanuts, hiding them and then stealing and fighting over them usually keeps the Jays busy. My little guys, the Titmice, Chickadees, Nuthatches, everything else travel together. Those little Titmice can be right, regular little bullies and take no guff, not even from the Jays . It amazes me how mean those tiny little Hummingbirds are, how they fight amongst themselves! They have such nasty tempers! Mocking Birds, God help us all if one of our Mocking Birds builds a nest and has a chick. Many a spring time I've had to walk to and from the car with an umbrella as another generation of Mama Mocking Bird dive bombed protecting her sweet babies. Gotta love 'em!

When I was a child we had the sweetest brown striped tom cat, he was my personal rag doll and I drug him around like one. His favorite thing was to lay on the warm concrete of our driveway and watch the world pass by. The Blue Jays would spy him and dive bomb him until his head bled. Poor Buster Cat would just lay there and cry, didn't dare move as our three resident Blue Jays screamed hollered and tried to peck his brains out. I was too little and way too scared, but my Mama would go out, pick up poor old Buster Cat and bring him in. Poor thing always had an oowie on the top of his head.

Those sweet little birdies are a mean bunch!!