Blue Jays will eat most feeder foods but go nuts for in-the-shell peanuts and peanut halves at my feeding stations. They also eat sunflower seeds, safflower and suet.
These birds often mate for life and can be gregarious at the feeders. They’ll even mock hawk calls to scare other birds away. Sometimes I’m fooled into thinking there’s a Sharp-shinned Hawk or Red-tailed Hawk in the neighborhood, but then I spot a Blue Jay chattering away from a nearby shrub or tree instead.
Blue Jays prefer hopper and platform feeders, and because they like to cache nuts and seeds, they’ll often pop in and immediately fly away.
It’s entertaining to watch Blue Jays try to yank in-the-shell peanuts from these circular wire feeders. But be aware that just a couple of them can empty that feeder in a day or two because they’ll cache most of those peanuts in hiding places around your neighborhood.