Recovery of Cached Food by Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata)

Authors: CALLO P.A.; ADKISSON C.S.

Source: Bird Behavior, Volume 13, Number 2, 2000 , pp. 85-91(7)

Publisher: Cognizant Communication Corporation

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Abstract:

Blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) are important dispersers of Quercus, Fagus, and Castanea nuts in eastern North America and their caching behavior in the wild has been well documented. Unlike in other Corvid species such as Clark's nutcrackers, pinyon jays, and western scrub-jays, the cache recovery behavior of blue jays has not been well studied. A laboratory study was conducted in which the caching and recovery behaviors of blue jays were examined. The performance of caching birds was quantified and compared with a random foraging model. Blue jays do return to their own caches with success rates higher than predicted by a random searching model, and they probe fewer sites than predicted by a random searching model. They cache significantly more caches near edges and objects than expected in the laboratory environment, but they do not recover more of these edge caches than expected by random. The possible role of other hypothesized recovery mechanisms is also discussed.

Keywords: Blue jay Cyanocitta cristata Caching Recovery beha

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Department of Biology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24060

Publication date: 2000-01-01

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Bird Behavior is an international and interdisciplinary journal that publishes high-quality, original research on descriptive and experimental analyses of species-typical avian behavior, including the areas of ethology, behavioral ecology, comparative psychology, and behavioral neuroscience.