You asked for this one BostonBob....
The nest remains clean as the Stellers Jay parents are eating the droppings. Each time the parents arrive back at the nest it's cleaned.
The experience of watching these birds on live video has given us a peek into the habits of the Stellers Jay life that we never expected. The view that you see online is delayed but the view we see working at our desks is full screen and live video.
From this experience we have learned that the birds essentially construct the nest in 2 days, then fine tune it for another 2 days - spinning in circles to get the true nest shape. It even appeared that the birds might have had moisture on their bodies while turning in the nest. The nest is seeded or stocked with food after it was completed. It appeared that nuts were one of the food items that was buried within the nest. The next thing that was intriguing is that the parents eat the egg shell once the baby was about 1/2 out of the shell. Every drop of it! When the parents are out collecting food for the babies water seems to be essential to keep the food fluid enough for passing on to the youngsters. I'm sure we are going to learn more before the babies get out of their nest.
Speaking of nests, that has to be one of the cleanest nests I have ever seen. Every other nest I have seen is just covered in bird droppings.
