Alvin

Alvin
Alvin sticks out his tongue when he is nervous

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Meals with Elvis

I recently wrote about Elvis, the bird that comes into my house for snacks.  I realized that it would be easier and more sanitary to just make him his own plate, which I think he appreciates because it makes it easier for him.  He is now eating me out of house and home.  A friend of mine, Rebecca, suggested that Elvis might not be a blue jay, but rather, a scrub or stellar jay.  I did some reading and it is clear that he isn't a blue jay.  The stellar or scrub jays are very interesting birds because they hoard food and hide it in very creative places.  They also steal food from other birds and will even look around to see if anyone is looking.  They are known to be so tame that they will eat food out of people's hands.  They also tend to hunt for food in pairs, which explains him getting food and then transferring it to the beak of the other bird.  They are very interesting birds but I am realizing that with the hoarding behavior that he is taking a lot of food and then hiding it goodness knows where.  Luckily, they have very good memories and always locate the food later.  They are capable of fairly complex problem solving and are generally very smart birds.  I need to cut him off to only a certain amount of food per day because he is becoming one expensive bird, but I just don't have the heart to tell him no.  I'll probably get evicted because of being penniless due to a bird named Elvis but knowing me, I will be living outside in a cardboard box, begging for bird seed so Elvis and I can continue our budding friendship.

1 comment:

  1. Ahhhhhhhh Ha ha ha ha ha!!! I ♥ it!! Thank you for thinking of me. I do so love those naughty birds. I love how they seem to "cuss" out everyone and everything that gets in their way, too. They create quite the stir in my rural backyard, but they are welcome to clean up whatever falls from the giant, drooling mouth of my Neapolitan Mastiff, Hugo!

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