What Do Young Jay Chicks Eat?

Young jay chicks mainly eat food regurgitated by the mother. If hand-feeding, mix bean powder, cooked egg yolk, greens, minced meat, cod liver oil, and calcium powder with water into a paste. Jays are omnivorous and eat different foods by season—mainly pine nuts, acorns, berries, and grass seeds, occasionally insects, and sometimes crops like corn.

During breeding, jays mainly eat chafers, longhorn beetles, geometrid moths, and pine caterpillars.