Eurasian jays, Garrulus glandarius, flexibly switch caching and pilfering tactics in response to social context

► We tested Eurasian jay caching and pilfering behaviour in two social contexts. ► Individual jays competed with a dominant and with a subordinate conspecific. ► Jays switched cache protection and pilfering tactics across the two social contexts. ► Complex social cognition may underlie the flexible tactics used by territorial jays. ► Thus corvid social cognition may be influenced by factors additional to sociality