The Eurasian Jay is a colorful and striking bird with a pinkish-brown body and vibrant blue patches on its wings. Its face is marked with a white throat and a black mustache-like stripe. The bird's tail and wingtips are black, contrasting sharply with its otherwise pastel appearance. With its expressive crest that can be raised or lowered, the Eurasian Jay is easily recognizable. Other subspecies may have black caps, reddish heads, or different colored wing-patches. Males and females look alike.
These jays are known for their intelligence and curiosity. They are excellent mimics, capable of imitating the calls of other birds and even human sounds. Eurasian Jays are also skilled at hiding food, particularly acorns, which they bury to eat later. This behavior plays a crucial role in forest regeneration, as many of these acorns are forgotten and grow into new trees.
Eurasian Jays inhabit woodlands, parks, and gardens across Europe and temperate parts of Asia. They prefer deciduous and mixed forests, where they can find plenty of food and cover. Their diet is varied, including insects, seeds, fruits, and small animals. They build their nests in trees, using twigs and roots, and lay a clutch of eggs each breeding season.
A recent study involving Eurasian Jays found that the birds, related to Blue Jays and crows, demonstrate an aspect of intelligence previously thought only to exist in humans. Male Eurasian Jays present their mates with gifts as part of their natural pair-bonding behavior. In the study,... Read more »
All cute bird fans grab your crayons, because we've just added three new Birdorable coloring pages! Go to Coloring Pages to download the PDFs. You can visit the meet pages for each bird to check the colors: Cockatiel, Eurasian Jay and Canada Goose. Read more »
Today we proudly introduce the Birdorable Eurasian Jay! The Eurasian Jay, known simply as Jay by English-speakers in its range, is a species of corvid that lives across much of Europe and parts of Asia and northern Africa. Read more »
