Though Blue Jays often manage to avoid letting me get a decent shot of them I managed to outsmart the clever corvids yesterday. I was at Kissena Corridor Park in Queens and noticed a steady stream of Blue Jays flying out of the park to a particular backyard and then flying back in to the park, generally following the same path. Slightly closer examination showed that they were going to fetch acorns!

Blue Jay carrying acorns

Each bird I spotted making the acorn run was actually carrying at least two acorns. Can you figure out where the rest are?

That’s right, the clever jays are carrying additional acorns in their crop! Here’s a close up of the picture above to show you skeptics that Blue Jays really load up on acorns when they have the chance.

Noticing that the birds had more than one acorn made me wonder if they were caching them somewhere. I did not have time to follow them to wherever their actual destination in the park was but it is high on my list of things to figure out.

Anyway, enjoy these shots of Cyanocitta cristata. Make sure to check out how the bird is using its tail as a rudder in the last shot. I’ll let you know if I figure out if and where the jays are hiding their acorns. Just promise not to tell the squirrels!

If you liked this post and want to see more great images of birds make sure to check out 10,000 Clicks, our big (and growing) page of galleries here at 10,000 Birds.

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Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.