This is bird note.

Corvids, like crows and jays, are known for scatter hoarding,

which sometimes turns into inadvertent gardening, says forest and behavioral ecologist Mario Peasendorfer.

Corvids will take seeds and hide them all over the area, and often they hide more than they need over the winter,

and then many stay in the ground and have a chance to turn into small plants.

That's what happened on Santa Cruz Island in Southern California.

It's part of Channel Islands National Park,

where native shrub oak habitats were largely decimated by grazing livestock.

After these animals were removed in the 80s and 90s, Santa Cruz Island regained vegetation

faster than its neighbors, thanks to Corvitz.

In a 2017 study, Mario and his colleagues found that the island scrub jays,

a species endemic to Santa Cruz, were instrumental to the abundant new growth.

We could show that the jays that are flying around caching the acorns,

they played the main role in the recovery of oak habitat on these islands.

Since Corvett species are so widespread

and naturally inclined to disperse seeds,

Mario says native birds could help restoration ecologists

regrow forests beyond the Channel Islands, too.

Most people know Jays for their intelligence,

and I now have the joy of bringing the ecological role of Jays

closer to people. Learn more about restoration ecology in the latest season of Bring Birds Back,

available in your favorite podcast app. For Bert Note, I'm Jazzy Johnson.

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