Pretty Smart!

This morning, perhaps because the weather has turned cool again, I had quite a crowd at my bird feeder. It was just the usual suspects: cardinals, juncos, blue jays, titmice, chickadees, downy woodpeckers, nuthatch, etc. But they were all there at once and created quite a crowd. Suddenly of the blue jays, a notorious mimic, gave a perfect red-tailed hawk scream, and the others birds scattered. This left the blue jay with the feeder all to himself, where it took full advantage to eat all the peanuts. I don't know if the bird had a clue what the effect of the red-tailed hawk scream would be to the rest of the birds at the feeder, but jays are smart, and if the bird didn't know before, I'm guessing it will know in the future!