They are noisy. I love it when they cuss me out while I go outside and fill the feeder. They yell at me the whole time, and I'm thinking "Just who do you think buys the birdfeed dummy!"
The best one I've see is a Stellar Jay that learned to imitate a Hawk. We've got a lot of Redtail Hawks around here, so they're pretty common. One day I here the "Scree! Scree!" of a Hawk. All the birds scatter, except for this Jay on top of the shed. I'm watching him thinking "You're going to get eaten fool!" when I hear the noise again, and notice his mouth moving in time to the noise. Yep, it was coming from him. The other birds scatter, then he flys to the feeder and has his choice of the food. Worked pretty well.
I always wondered what happened when there was a real hawk nearby. He'd say "Scree!" and the hawk flies over and says "Yes? What do you want?" D'oh! Never saw that happen, but always wondered if it did.
