Some Birds Are Serious Food Hoarders!

Some birds are serious food hoarders! Chickadees, nuthatches, titmice and jays all cache food, hiding seeds and nuts in hundreds or even thousands of little hiding places to help them get through times when food is scarce.

These birds are remarkably good at remembering where they stash their treasures. A chickadee, for example, may hide thousands of individual seeds throughout its territory and use those memories to find them again later. Nuthatches often tuck food into bark crevices, while jays may bury nuts in the ground and cover their hiding places with leaves or soil.

Peanuts are a favorite food for many caching birds, and jays are especially enthusiastic about peanuts in the shell. A single jay can cache 100 or more peanuts in one day! That’s a lot of future snacks tucked away for a rainy day.

So when you see a chickadee fly away with a seed or a jay disappear with a peanut, they're not necessarily eating it right away. They may be adding it to their very own backyard pantry!