Youngsters are out of control – parents are harried!
Blue Jays have been practicing tough love and the Common Grackles need to take a page out of the jay’s book on parenting. For the past few days, if you have been watching the birdfeeder cam, you will see juvenile grackles practically on top of their parents at the feeders – and screeching – and the parents are still popping seeds into their gaping mouths. In human terms, these grackle babies are truly obnoxious! So incredibly demanding! They do not give their parents a moment’s peace.
This will soon calm down. Like the jays, the grackles will feed their youngsters for a week or so and then start to ignore them to force the youngsters to start foraging on their own. Right now, these grackle families are dominating at the feeders. This will stop by mid-July, and most of these grackles will be elsewhere. Then the smaller resident birds like the cardinals, titmice, nuthatches, and finches will have the feeders to themselves again. Probably with huge sighs of relief!
If you were watching the birdbath cam this morning, a Blue Jay family was bathing together – one adult and three juveniles. Water was thrown every which way. You can tell the juveniles from the adults because they do not have much of a crest. When jays bathe, they continually raise and lower their crests. The adults look like they have brushes on tops of their heads. The juveniles just have a few feathers sticking up. But if you watched, you did see these juveniles are becoming proficient bathers and they have learned this from their parents. This is all part of grooming and preening which is so important. Birds’ feathers must be kept in immaculate condition to keep them dry, warm, and healthy.