Tweets,

I would assume that "fat-eater" refers to their habit of hanging around
villages & camps and 'stealing' meat from drying racks.

Most of the old-timers I knew down in the central Oregon Cascades country
(deer hunters, prospectors and miners, loggers, etc.) called Gray Jays "Camp
Robbers", and that's what I knew them as until I got my book-learning. I
can vouch for the fact that a family of Gray Jays will find a carcass
that's been hung in a deer camp within the hour and get away with as
much fat/meat/whatever that they can.

Come to think of it, though, it seems that I've seen more scavenging of
"gut-piles" during a hunting season by Steller's Jay than by the Grays.
No data, of course, just my feeble memory working overtime.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, WA
anderjda at dfw.wa.gov


> On Wed, 27 Sep 1995, Burton Guttman wrote:

> > Maybe a question for Gene Hunn is, Do the birds get the name "fat lover"
> > because they store fat or because they eat fat?
> >
> > Dennis Paulson said,
> >
> > > I wonder if Gray (or other) Jays store fat or if they just readily eat it
> > > to keep their furnace stoked during the winter.

On Wed, 27 Sep 1995, Eugene Hunn wrote:

> Good question. I'll have to ask one of my consultants. Perhaps they
> come around the camp and steal bits of meat?