If Scramble was gone, he'd be a nonbreeder, a virtual eunuch, so Scramble's absence might have been a real threat to his primacy.

Even more puzzling, although a pair will prevent the nonbreeder from feeding the nestlings, it will allow such feeding as soon as the young have left the nest.

First, extra trips to the nest with food will be dangerous if they give the location away to a predator that then cannot be driven away by the combined efforts of the pair and the nonbreeder.

This may explain why, after the young fledge, breeding Gray Jays start allowing feeding visits to the young by the nonbreeder and also why they themselves start making more frequent visits (with smaller food loads).