Blue Jays Attack Wasps / by Chris Maynard

We have huge ant nest hills near where I live, like little volcano mountains a meter high. I noticed A Western Stellers Jay who flew down, picked up an ant, ate it, flew down again for another, and another, and another. Since I like to flatten wasp nest paper onto a heavy cotton paper to sometimes use in my creations, this made me want to research which birds eat not ants, but wasps. A lot of birds catch wasps on the fly but only a few are noted to go to the wasp's nests. Jays are said to do this. I didn't read that they tore apart the big nests like the ones that I use for my paper-making. Instead, they are shown to eat the larvae and wasps in the genera Polistes who make smaller open nests.


The feathers are matched from the wings of a Blue & Gold Macaw and the bird portrayed is an Eastern Blue Jay.