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Found out blue jays mimic hawk calls to clear out feeders for themselves
Was reading this random Audubon article while my shift was slow and learned that blue jays will do a perfect red-shouldered hawk imitation to scare other birds away from the feeder. I've seen them clean out my sunflower seeds before but never put two and two together. Has anyone else actually heard them do this in their yard or am I just gullible?
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mason.mark15h ago
Huh, I always thought they were just being loud and bossy.
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brookethomas13h ago
Definitely not gullible @mason.mark, they are absolutely doing this! I caught one last spring sitting on my fence doing this high pitched scream that made me jump because I thought a hawk was about to swoop down. Looked outside and it was just a fat blue jay staring at me like it knew exactly what it was doing lol. They're not just loud and bossy, they're straight up con artists. I've heard them do it several times since then and every time the chickadees and finches scatter like they're being chased by a ghost. It's honestly kind of impressive how spot on the imitation is, if I didn't know better I'd swear it was a real hawk.
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