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Food storing
California scrub jays, like many other corvids, exploit ephemeral surpluses by storing food in scattered caches within their territories. They rely on highly accurate and complex memories to recover the hidden caches, often after long periods of time. In the process of collecting and storing this food, they have shown an ability to plan ahead in choosing cache sites to provide adequate food volume and variety for the future. Western scrub jays are also able to rely on their accurate observational spatial memories to steal food from caches made by conspecifics. Food storing birds implement a number of strategies to protect their caches from potential 'pilferers.'

Anecdotally, scrub jays — and corvids more generally — are known for an attraction to, and thievery of, brightly colored objects. Recent research debunks, or at least casts doubt, on this idea. Corvids do, however, have a mischievous streak, and scrub jays are not above outright theft. They have been observed stealing acorns from acorn woodpecker caches. Some scrub jays snatch acorns from the hiding places of other jays. When these birds go to hide their own acorns, they check first that no other jays are watching. Other protection methods include moving the cache in the presence of an observer, storing inedible decoys like small stones instead of food, and hiding the cache once a scavenging bird is no longer watching; these behaviors are thought to vary based on the presence or absence of potential pilferers (like other corvids) as well as what kind of animal might pilfer the cache, implying strategic and socially complex motives behind different kinds of caching behavior.

Intelligence
Recent research has suggested that western scrub jays, along with several other corvids, are among the most intelligent of animals. The brain-to-body mass ratio of adult scrub jays rivals that of chimpanzees and cetaceans, and is dwarfed only by that of humans. Scrub jays are also the only non-primate or non-dolphin shown to plan ahead for the future (known as metacognition), which was previously thought of as a uniquely human trait. Other studies have shown that they can remember locations of over 200 food caches, as well as the food item in each cache and its rate of decay. To protect their caches from pilfering conspecifics, scrub jays will choose locations out of sight of their competitors, or re-cache caches once they are alone, suggesting that they can take into account the perspective of others. Jays are able to mimic raptors like red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks with such accuracy that is can be difficult to distinguish between species using calls alone; possible explanations for this behavior include warning other jays about the presence of a predator or trying to deter birds (like cache-pilfering corvids) from a given area. However, jays have been observed employing raptor-mimicking calls without the presence of other birds, making the precise adaptive reason for this behavior unknown, though it may be two-fold. California scrub jays also summon others to screech over the body of a dead jay, according to research from the University of California, Davis. The birds' cacophonous "funerals" can last for up to half an hour.