Scrub Jays and time plus a new video!

Although Blue, a California Scrub Jay is a very much domesticated he is also a free bird, in the sense that he has his own life, flies free most of the day and has his own territory and possessions, although most are stolen from me. :)

(FYI: The New Video is at the bottom of this post.)

He is dependent on me for both friendship love and care. He takes interest in anything I use, the remote, the telephone, a book, and my laptop where he sits on the top and watches me type. The other day he sang to the young bird doing the Sun trance at the post below as he watched the video. He also loves music and will land on me the minute I play my guitar. I think he enjoys the vibrations he feels through the neck where he sits.

The picture above is not Blue, but a Scrub from a lab where they are studying Scrub Jays and their unique ability to perceive time in a way traditional animals were thought unable. Some interesting articles on this and precognition in Scrubs are surfacing. This one on the perception of time can be found here. http://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/ccl/Scrub_jays.html

"Scientists say scrub jays are not stuck in the present.

Mental time-travel, the ability to use memories of past experiences and plan for the future, has traditionally been considered a quality unique to humans. Now scientists at the University of Cambridge have identified the same ability in a bird - the Western scrub jay, [a US native]."

Although Florida Scrub Jays are considered a sub species, they act the same and look the same. Here is an interesting audio link to some talk about the memories of Scrub Jays being better then our own, and this has been tested. To download and listen to this 2 minute audio file, Click Here.
You can also visit the site at
http://www.earthsky.org/teachers/article/scrub-jay

Blue in the morning wakes up and spends two hours with Katie as she goes through her morning routine. He helps with the feeding of the other birds and sits on her shoulder as she does her morning stuff. They play phone and basket ball until she leaves for work. I let Blue sort of do his own thing for a bit. This is a normal hour of his antics during that alone time condensed. I am in the room but he just does his thing. Latter he will mellow, sit with me, follow me from room to room , sing and dance for me and let me know if he needs anything. When I first arise in the morning, he gets very happy and emits a small peep, which he only does when he is happy to see me and only for me.

Blue needs and gets 5-6 hours of solid attention each day. That is why I try to explain to folks who find these birds in distress what kind of commitment they are getting into should they try and keep the bird. The bond so fast, they cannot be released after just a few days of seeing you as their feeder. Rescue centers who have the time and ability to release these birds, have to keep the young ones in a box. Wearing gloves and a mask, they will feed the birds quickly and shut the door. These are not Scrubs but it works the same. They not only bond, but get their vocal sounds from you and your sent. So when sent free, one they will return if they survive, and two they sound and small wrong and will not be accepted by the Scrub Jay community.
See very short video.

Small Scrubs eat every half an hour and get their water from their food. This was not an option for me. Blue is nearly ten. He has adjusted very well and I have tried my best to give him a happy and healthy life. When I found Blue I had to carry him with me everywhere I went to feed him every 30 minutes for 3 months. He was the same age as the birds in the video being fed. Luckily they sleep throughout the night without the need of food and water.
Enjoy the Video! Send in your own stories of your birds, pictures and videos. I am interested in people who have had their lives altered in a good way due to the relationships they have formed with birds. Those that befriend wild birds, which happens allot can have profound experiences. In the post below at the end, is a short video of a young scrub doing the Sun trance. This is the first video that I know of , showing a wild scrub doing this. The reason, they only do it if they feel VERY safe. If you have the patience you can get to have a very rewarding relationship with a wild Scrub. Peanuts are pivotal to this relationship. Please get raw peanuts, from a pet store. I have several Scrubs that visit, and one will land on me and let me hand him nuts. Blues mother and father were my friends before they lost their nest to the attack of the Crows. They went on to have 3 birds the next year choosing a better tree.

Blue talks to be in small krk krk. If I am in another room and he does not know where I am he will squawk, but when I answer, he replies back with a few krk krk krk's to say, "'I'm ok your ok."

Since I am disabled I am home a great deal. Having a best friend here all the time is the best medicine I have ever received.