Adult Gray Jay captures an adult black-capped chickadee

We observed an adult Gray Jay (Perisoreus canadensis) that had captured an adult Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, during winter. Aerial pursuit of small, adult birds and an instance of capture and predation of a juvenile bird by a Gray Jay have been reported previously. Here, we present the first documented case of capture of a seemingly uninjured, adult bird. Received 22 March 2004, accepted 12 October 2004.
The Gray Jay (Perisoreus canadensis) is well known for its diverse diet. Foods cited in the literature include arthropods, berries, carrion, nestling birds, fungi (Strickland and Ouellet 1993); a blood-stained [...]