Ooooo, a gray jay. we only have Blue Jays here in MA that i know of.

-susana

Obviously they are really tame in nature?

I wouldn't quite call them "tame." They didn't stick around, just landed on peoples' hands long enough to grab food and go. But it sure was pretty surprising to seem them land on hands at all.

There were also Steller's jays at the same place, but they were nowhere near as bold as the grey jays. The Steller's jays all stayed back and waited for people to throw food on to the ground (which happened a lot, there were a ton of chipmunks running around inducing people to throw food). It was kind of surprising to see the difference in boldness between the grey jays and Steller's jays, I would have assumed that they would both behave similarly. But, when people held out their hands, the grey jays swooped right in and the Steller's jays just watched.

I wish I could have gotten a picture of the Steller's jays up close though, they were a REALLY vivid blue... maybe it was just due to the clear blue skies that day, but they seemed much more brightly colored than the Steller's jays I have at home (where the skies are mostly just cloudy!).

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA