Rufous Treepie

The Rufous Treepie is an arboreal omnivore feeding almost completely in trees on fruits, seeds, invertebrates, small reptiles and the eggs and young of birds.It has also been known to take flesh from recently killed carcasses. It is an agile forager, clinging and clambering through the branches and sometimes joining mixed hunting parties along with species such as drongos and babblers. It has been observed feeding on ecto-parasites of wild deer.
Like many other corvids they are known to cache food.They have been considered to be beneficial to palm cultivation in southern India due to their foraging on the grubs of the destructive weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus.They are known to feed on the fruits of Trichosanthes palmata which are toxic to mammals.