Diet
Tufted Jays eat a variety of invertebrates, fruit, berries, and acorns (Crossin 1967). Visual inspection of stomach contents (n = 22) indicates that ca 70% of the diet is plant material, and 30% is animal material, primarily arthropods. Insect prey includes wasp larvae, grasshoppers, beetles, spiders, and ants; the most frequent insects in the diet are Orthopterans (katydids), beetles (especially Scarabaeidae) and wasps (Polistinae) (Crossin 1967). They consume fruits and seeds of plants such as blackberries and Peltostigma eximium, nuts, acorns, vegetable fibers, and magnolias (Moore 1938, Crossin 1967). Tufted Jays also consume eggs, and presumably nestlings, of other birds, including of White-throated Thrush (Turdus assimilis) (Crossin 1967).