On Deck with Blue Jays and Red-bellied Woodpeckers

With the fall coming, I’ve been tossing corn kernels on the back deck and the Blue Jays and Red-bellied Woodpeckers are taking full advantage!

Seems like with the fall season an uneasy detente has come upon the various bird species too who would normally waste time chasing each other off the food. Instead they’re tolerating each other with only a little anxiety!

This is about as close as they’ll get to each other above before someone squawks and gives ground!

Seeing lots of visits from both Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Blue Jays on the back deck to hit up the corn and sunflower seeds.

We only seem to have one male Red-bellied Woodpecker back this fall after normally hosting a number of them all year in years past. But we have no shortage of Blue Jays, that’s for sure!

I don’t know if that is a Blue Jay family or all independent adults? They seem to tolerate each other pretty well overall compared to other times of the year, but there’s no feeding each other so that may rule out the family relations possibility.

Maybe most entertaining about watching these birds feed is how hungry (greedy?) some of them are stuffing themselves so full they can’t even swallow all of the corn kernels. Some even keep trying to poke at more corn kernels trying to jam them in an already full beak!

This is one Blue Jay that kept poking at corn kernels trying to get more in its already stuffed crop!