Feeding Behavior

Forages on the ground and in trees, sometimes in flocks. Often harvests acorns and buries them, to retrieve and eat them later.

Eggs

3-4, sometimes 2-5. Light bluish green, spotted faintly with olive. Incubation is by female, about 18 days. Young: Fed by both parents. Age at first flight is not well known. 1 brood per year.

Young

Fed by both parents. Age at first flight is not well known. 1 brood per year.

Diet

Omnivorous. Diet varies with season. Eats a wide variety of insects and other arthropods. Feeds heavily on acorns, especially in fall, as well as other seeds and berries. Also eats small lizards, snakes, mice, and the eggs and young of smaller birds.

Nesting

Unlike Florida Scrub-Jay and Mexican Jay, this species breeds in isolated pairs, not in cooperative flocks. Nest site is in tree or shrub, usually an oak, typically 6-10 feet above the ground but sometimes much higher. Nest (built by both sexes) is a bulky, thick-walled cup of twigs, lined with fine rootlets and sometimes with animal hair.