I thought it was bullfinches that were notorious for pecking off buds. We've got a large flock of gold finches and they don't seem to do any damage. They will gobble up cotoneaster berries and may have a go at peas, beans and sweetcorn.

oh yeah, I thought I'd got that bit wrong!

We have loads of jays around here, and I've never seen them attacking plants or buds at all. They are members of the Corvidae family, like Magpies, Rooks and Crows, so are mainly scavengers.

Correction to my post, it is jays that will eat cotoneaster berries etc.

Thanks. this makes me happy :0D

Didn't mean to sound flippant. I'm not happy the jays eat your cotoneaster berries, Moon Grower! I was replying to Gattina, thinking I could just enjoy watching the jays :-0

Well I am perfectly happy that the birds eat the cotoneaster berries... ensures that the seed gets well spread around.

Hello! The only problem with jays, as with other corvettes, is they do have a liking for baby songbirds and/or the eggs. I have watched a whole flock of sparrows noisily and successfully chase a jay out of the garden last spring!! Like magpies they will throw the babies out of their nest and then scavenge, feeding the result on their own young ... nature at its base!

oh. Thanks for telling me. I'll keep an eye open for that.

Got a large colony of jays at work...they're very secretive birds which tend to prefer areas with oaks around...although ive only got one oak in the garden and that's fairly small.

Never seen them on cottoneaster despite having several large cottoneaster cornubia trees full of berries. These are usually reserved for the blackbirds when it gets a bit cold.

Only problem with jays i've found....they can be noisy !!!

That's a corvette for you ... there are no quiet ones!!!