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Nesting Fish Crows Adopt a Fledgling Blue Jay Kevin J

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Nesting Fish Crows Adopt a Fledgling Blue Jay Kevin J J. Field Ornithol., 61(2):171-173 NESTING FISH CROWS ADOPT A FLEDGLING BLUE JAY KEVIN J. McGOWAN• Department of Biology University of South Florida Tampa, Florida 33620 USA Abstract.--A fledgling Blue Jay (Cyanocittacristata) appeared in a Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus)nest containing young nestlings. The jay was fed by both adult crowsfor 12 d beforeit disappeared,representing only the secondrecorded instance of interspecificfeeding by a memberof the family Corvidae.The jay probablyentered the neston its own after fledgingfrom a nearbynest and was not consideredpotential prey while near the crownest. CORVUS OSSIFRAGUS ADOPTA UN PICH•)N DE CYANOCITTA CRISTATA Sinopsis.--Un pich6nde Cyanocittacristata apareci6 en un nido de cuervos(Corvus ossifragus) conteniendopolluelos. E1 pich6nfue alimentadopor los cuervosdurante un perlodode 12 d, al t6rminodel cual el pich6ndesapareci6. Este es el segundoregistro de una instanciade alimentaci6ninterespecifica por un miembrode la familia Corvidae.E1 pich6nde Cyanocitta cristataprobablemente entr6 al nido por si solodespu6s de haberdejado su propionido, y no fue consideradocomo posible presa mientras estuvo en la vecindaddel nidode loscuervos. Skutch(1987) reviewedthe literatureon interspecificfeeding in birds, and reporteda singleinstance of this phenomenonin the family Corvidae: a captiveCommon Raven (Corvuscorax) feedinga wild Black Vulture (Coragypsatratus) (Davis 1952). I report prolongedcare and feedingof a fledgling Blue Jay (Cyanocittacristata) by nestingadult Fish Crows (Corvusossifragus). At 0905 (EDT) on 22 May 1987, I had been watching a Fish Crow nest for 20 min as part of a study of the nestingbiology of Fish Crows on the campusof the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. The nestcontained nestlings between 3 and 7 d old and was attendedby two adults.The female of the pair was distinguishableby the absenceof a secondaryin her right wing. The male hadjust cometo the nestand fed nestlingsand was perchedon the rim, peckingin the nest. Suddenlya fledgling Blue Jay, approximately30 d old, appearedon the nest rim from inside the nest bowl. It beggedat the crow, but was ignoredand remained on the nest rim. At 0906 the female crow arrived at the nest and fed nestlings.The male took somefood from the female and alsofed nestlings.The jay beggedbriefly, and was fed by the male. At 0909 the male left and the female settledonto the nest.The jay sat on the nest rim, preenedand stretched,and occasionallylooked into the nest.At 0925 h when the crowwas peckingin the nestand had its bodyraised slightly, thejay hoppeddown into the nestbowl. The crowthen settleddown onto the nestagain, and remainedthis way until I left at 0930. I observedthe Blue Jay at the crow nest on five occasionsover 12 d. I observedthe crows feed the jay eight times: the male five times, the • Currentaddress: Section of Ecology iv Systematics,Corson Hall, CornellUniversity, Ithaca, New York 14853-2701 USA. 171 172] K.J. McGowan J.Field Ornithol. Spring 1990 female three. Never did the adult crows show any signs of aggression toward the jay. In the first few daysthe jay spentmost of its time in the nest or on the rim. Later it spent more time in the nest tree away from the nest, returning to beg when the crows arrived at the nest with food. The jay movedfarther from the nest on each observation.Eventually it may have left the nest tree and no longer was fed by the crows, who continuedto attend the nest for three weeksafter the Blue Jay was last seen.Blue Jays have a relatively long period of dependence(80 days, Laskey 1958), and this jay probablywas incapableof feedingitself and would not have survived unattended. These observationspresent two questions:how did the jay get into the crow nest, and why was it not eaten by the crows, known to prey on fledgling birds (Bent 1946, Taylor 1972)? Several avenuesof entrance into the nest are possible.The jay could have been brought alive to the nest,could have hatched in the nestfrom an eggdumped into it, or could have fledgednearby and climbedinto the neston its own. It is unlikely that the crowsbrought the jay into the nest as food, becausethey never broughtwhole, unprocessed food items to the nest.Invariably, beforethey took foodto the nestthey perchednearby and peckedthe itemsinto small pieces.Pieces of food items were left on these perches,and often were revisitedafter the nest visit in a manner similar to the cachingbehavior reportedby McNair (1985). Interspecificegg dumping is unlikelybecause the jay was approximately30 d old, and the crowswere at most7 d old on the first observation.With an 18 d incubation period for the jay (Arnold, in Bent 1946), the egg would have to have been laid at the end of March, when the nest was just under construction.These facts leave only the possibilitythat the jay climbedinto the nestitself after fiedging nearby. I did not find any Blue Jay nestsin the vicinity, but Blue Jays commonlynested on campus. Why did the crows not eat the jay? Fish Crows raid Blue Jay nests and will eat young Blue Jays: I witnesseda pair of Fish Crows raiding a Blue Jay nest (probablywith eggs)in Hardee County, Florida on 25 May 1988, and I found remains of old nestlingor young fledgling Blue Jays beneatha cachesite near a Fish Crow nest in Tampa in May and June 1988. It is possiblethat the jay arrived at the nestwhile the crows were absent.Fish Crows appear to prey heavily on nestlingpasserines during the nestingcycle (pers. obs.) but may have an inhibition against eatingsmall birds in their own nest,thereby not eating their own offspring. As long as the jay was in or near the crows' nest it might have been protectedfrom being treated as potential prey. Parental recognitionof chicksis known to developslowly over the nestingperiod in somebird species(Burtt 1977 and referencestherein). Yom-Tov (1976) foundthat Carrion Crows (Corvuscorone) did not distinguishstrange chicks intro- ducedinto their nestscontaining young nestlings,even chicksof Rooks (Corvusfrugilegus) or Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus).Several species of Corvusare regular hostsof the Great SpottedCuckoo (Clarnator glan- darius) (Witherby et al. 1965), a brood parasite. Yom-Tov (1976) rea- Vol.61, No. 2 FishCrows Adopt Blue Jay [ 173 sonedthat crows are slow to developchick recognitionbecause, as nest predators,the danger of attackingtheir own eggsand young is greater than the advantageof having a goodantiparasitic device. Intraspecificadoption may occur regularly in somebird speciesfor reasonsnot fully understood(e.g., gulls [Larussp.] Pierotti 1980; Black Tits [Parusniger], Tarboton 1981). Interspecificadoption is relatively rare, and is heretofore unknown in corvids. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank David Winkler, Kimberly Kline, Lawrence Kilham, Edward Burtt, Jr., and an anonymousreferee for helpful commentson the manuscript,and RoxannaNormark for the Spanish abstract. LITERATURE CITED BENT, A. C. 1946. Life historiesof North American jays, crows, and titmice. U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull., No. 191. BURTT,E. H., JR. 1977. Somefactors in the timing of parent-chickrecognition in swallows. Anim. Behav. 25:231-239. DAVIS,M. 1952. Captive Raven carries food to non-captiveBlack Vulture. Auk 69:201. LASKEY,A. R. 1958. Blue Jays at Nashville, Tennessee;movements, nesting, age. Bird- Banding 29:211-218. McNAIP,, D. B. 1985. An auxiliary with a mated pair and food-cachingbehavior in the Fish Crow. Wilson Bull. 97:123-125. PmP,OTTI, R. 1980. Spite and altruism in gulls. Am. Nat. 115:290-300. SKUTC•I,A.F. 1987. Helpers at birds' nests.Univ. of Iowa Press,Iowa City. TAYLOR,W. K. 1972. Mobbing of a Fish Crow by passetines.Wilson Bull. 84:98. TARBOTON,W. R. 1981. Cooperativebreeding and group territoriality in the Black Tit. Ostrich 52:216-225. WITHERBY,H. F., F. C. R. JOURDAIN,N. F. TICEHURST,AND B. W. TUCKE•t. 1965. The handbookof British birds. Volume II. H. F. & G. Witherby Ltd., London. YOM-TOV, Y. 1976. Recognitionof eggsand youngby the Carrion Crow (Corvuscotone). Behaviour 59:247-251. Received12 Oct. 1988; accepted9 Sep. 1989. .
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