Do Mom and Dad take turns in the Jay world, or is Mom left to care for the eggs herself? -
You can pretty much go by the amount of sexual dimorphism as to how the duties are shared--or not. Sexual dimorphism is the sexes looking the same or different. (di-two, morph-form) The more sexual dimorphism, the less the male is likely to spend time caring for the birds, the more the two sexes look alike, the more they seem to share the duties. With Stellar jays being so similiar, it is a fair bet, they share most of the duties. As with most rules--I'm sure someone could come up with exceptions. There are always phalaropes where the females are polyandrous (they mate with lots of different males) are the more colorful, and the drab colored males do all the incubation and care of the young!
