crow city | crow family | carrion & hooded crow | rook | jackdaw | magpie | jay | chough | raven
The jay is found throughout the British Isles with the exceptions of the west coast of Ireland, the north of Scotland and the Isle of Man. It is recognised by its speckled head, pinkish brown body, black white and blue wings, white throat and underparts and black tail. Its beak is grey and its eyes blue. It is the most arboreal of the crows, having specialised in flying short distances from tree to tree, with a fairly long tail and short round wings. It is less suited to flying across open spaces. When on the ground it prefers to hop about. It utters variously a loud screech, a quieter mew and a chirrup; also a crowlike kraah at the spring gatherings. Jays can mimic other birds, often sounding danger with the alarm calls of the blackbird or magpie.
The jay favours territory untouched by humankind, inhabiting old woods and forest wherever there are oak trees. Indeed, their love of acorns is likely to have contributed greatly to the spread of the oak across Britain, in the wake of retreating glaciers. Schuster in 1950 calculated that 65 jays would plant 200,000 acorns in the harvest month. The jay will continue to feed on these acorns until the following year’s harvest, remembering well where they have planted them, pulling up the new seedlings also, but leaving these once they are a year old.
Jays can travel large distances but rarely do, preferring to stay close to their birthplace. The gradual reforestation of Scotland is aiding the increase of their numbers, but they are slow to move to these new sites. Young jays roost in close contact with each other, but as they become more adult they prefer a certain distance of solitude at the roost. They gather and plant their acorns communally, and join together in mobbing predators, particularly during the nesting season.