Dr. Clayton began to test western scrub jays to see if they met any of the criteria for episodic memory.

When they encounter a fallen bird, western scrub jays call out and gather around the body in a funeral-like display, scientists discover.

Western scrub jays also summon others to screech over the body of a dead jay, according to new research from the University of California, Davis.

In fact, nests in noisy habitats had higher survival than those laid in control habitats, presumably because noisy environments hosted fewer western scrub jays which are major nest predators of other birds.

Western scrub jay (Aphelocoma californica)

Aphelocoma californica oocleptica - Nicasio Scrub Jay.

Western Scrub Jays (Aphelocoma californica)

Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology: Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica).

The Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica), is a species of scrub jay native to western North America.

USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter: Western scrub-jay Aphelocoma californica.

One species that has frequently been considered is the Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica), a member of the corvid family of birds native to Western North America.

They demonstrated that Western Scrub Jays (Aphelocoma californica) remember where they cache different types of food, and discriminately recover them depending on the perishability of the item and the amount of time that has passed since caching.