my dad gets wild birds to eat of of his hand every year..
the blue jays are the easiest..
he start out by picking the bugs off his plants (by hand,) and placing them in a disposable pie plate..
at first the birds wait till he goes indoors before coming to eat the bugs..
but soon, they fly to the pie plate as soon as he puts it down..
soon after that, they will fly in and grab the grubs if my father just hold his arm out for a few seconds--with the pie plate far from his body.
then he just puts the bugs in his open palm, and Mr Blue Jay is always the bravest..and land on my fathers out stretched hand, and gobbles up the (by now, gigantic!) tomato horn worms.. other birds follow Mr Jay's example.
(some blue jays return to the same area, for a few years, and are fresh and will eat from the pie plate as soon as they see my dad out in the garden.adn will eat from my fathers hand, early in the season. )
I hate hand picking the bugs! (and now its a moot point, because i don't have a garden!)
