The Steller’s Jay is a bird I associate with Yosemite National Park. They are a constant sight in the valley campgrounds. I’ve seen them get into nasty fights over food. Despite having a bad disposition, I’ve always thought they were beautiful with their black heads contrasted with a blue body. They style quite a hairdo.

In 2015 we moved to Washington and guess who showed up in our backyard? I was amazed to find that this bird is found from British Columbia, Canada to Nicaragua in Central America. Now, perhaps because of a reliable food source, they’re hanging around. In the winter it’s best to understand that food can be scarce because nothing grows like berries. All the more important to know that they may depend on you to fill the feeder up. Catch 22; if I don’t fill the feeders, the birds (chickadees, juncos, woodpeckers, robins, jays) won’t come around at all and this home will be dead to wildlife. But aren’t you doing them harm by feeding them and making them dependent? Studies have shown that they will only get 20% of their food from one source. That eases my conscious a bit.

They love backyard bird feeders like mine. I have four feeders plus I’m dangling moist suet. With the two bird baths, I might have won over a Steller’s Jay or two. Actually, I don’t know if there is one or two jays, they look so similar, and I never see two together. Will they stay is the question?

Over the years we’ll see a jay once or twice a year, sometimes none. We went for a long streak of several years without seeing any. I’ve learned that you can be surrounded by wildlife yet never see the birds and squirrels. It dawned on me that you need to draw them in. Thus, I became diligent to fill the feeders and keep water in the baths. The birds love water. On rare occasions I use a sprinkler to water plants. In the summer the sprinkler drenches the area in droplets of water. The birds flitter around like they’re at Disneyland. Water is life and they really respond. Feeders and water.

The Steller Jay stays in the woods. When I’m nearby I hear their raspy call warning me that they are coming in for some seed from the feeder. Sure enough, down comes the jay. Nearby birds scatter and the jay, for a time, rules the feeder. Then it disappears in the woods.