Curl-crested
Jay

Curl-crested Jay

The Curl-crested Jay is a jay from South America. It is a beautiful and large bird with predominantly dark blue back, an almost black head and neck, and snow-white chest and underparts. They have a pronounced curled crest rising from just behind the beak; the crest is on average larger in males, but the male and female are generally quite similar.

They live in groups of from 6 to 12 individuals, moving from food source to food source during the day. They leave a lookout nearby to keep watch for predators. This bird is a generalist, eating almost anything, including eggs and nestlings of other birds, insects, arthropods, and small vertebrates like geckos. It also likes palm nuts and is particularly fond of the seeds of the native Inga laurina and the fruits of the introduced Umbrella Tree. Curl-crested Jays have even been observed spending the early morning in a Pequi tree where they fed on nectar, and perhaps also on invertebrates which had visited the mainly night-blooming flowers of this plant.

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