Aphelocoma californica
These birds can be seen all throughout Davis, but unfortunately in fewer numbers than the crows.
Scrub jays regularly bury nuts in the dirt or under a pile of leaves. Watch closely — when they're done burying, they'll carefully mark the spot with a leaf or twig so that they can find it later.
Scrub jays love peanuts in the shell. Feed them only roasted, unsalted peanuts, as the salt is bad for them and the raw peanuts will sprout when they're buried. Placing a handful of peanuts in the same place every day guarantees loyalty in a scrub jay, and they can soon be trained to take peanuts from the palm of your hand.
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"I believe they are made out of pure evil. Watch one for a few minutes - you'll see." -ChristopherMcKenzie
2005-06-05 10:29:25 It's great watching people try to feed ducks, then have the scrub jays dash in, grab the bread, and fly away. Repeatedly. Love these lil guys. —ES
2005-06-05 13:38:04 I like them, too! They're resourceful, not evil! And they're bright blue. —SummerSong
2005-06-30 18:29:54 They are evil when they decide to have parties outside your window when you are trying to sleep past dawn. —RogerClark
2005-08-15 20:03:06 Learn how to mimic their cries. I do it by squirting air between my right molars, modulating the tone with my cheek. It really seems to piss them off or confuse them or something. My 12 year old thinks I'm doing it deliberately to embarrass her. —BlancheNonken
2006-02-25 17:44:11 If you think Scrub-jays are bad if you want to sleep past dawn...you should try going to Asia in summer when the morning cicadas are making a racket...it's like a jackhammer...and that's when there's only one of them... —MatthewTom
2008-03-16 10:01:24 For those of you who live in residential homes I strongly suggest that you don't feed the scrub jays that hang out in your backyard. As a kid growing up in the subs of the bay area there was a huge scrub jay population in my neighborhood. A lot of them would hang out in my parent's backyard foraging for food. My lovely mother thought it would be fun to feed them the leftover stale bread and cereal (why she didn't make croutons is beyond me) and after awhile, they became used to a 10 a.m. feeding routine. When we stopped feeding them they would stand outside for hours on end, SCREECHING at us for food. Eventually, after a couple of MONTHS of not feeding them, they stopped bothering us. —EmilyTung
