Very common indeed, Jennifer. He/she was actually storing it in
his/her crop - to be brought up whole and stored somewhere for later
retrieval. They'll usually take two at a time from our tray. Now here
is the truly unusual behaviour; we have one Jay in particular who will
tap on the window when the peanut tray is empty. Once my attention is
assured the bird lands on the branch nearest to the peanut tray
anxiously waiting for the refill.

Smart birds!



On May 11, 2008, at 11:19 AM, Jennifer Griffith wrote:

> Hi, everyone! I saw some unusual behavior & was wondering if anyone
> else had seen this, as well as whether this was normal. We had a
> Steller's jay outside our back door the other day, waiting for me to
> toss peanuts out for it. After I obliged, it hopped over, picked up a
> peanut, & proceeded to swallow it whole! I'd never seen this done by
> any bird, & was curious as to whether this might have been a young,
> inexperienced bird, or whether this is common behavior.
>
> Thanks in advance for any feedback!
>
> Jennifer Griffith
> Lacey, WA
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