Jay
Garrulus glandarius
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Our most colourful crow, and the reason a good many oak trees are where they are.
A shy, pinkish-brown woodland crow with a black moustache, a streaked crown it can raise into a crest, a brilliant white rump that flashes as it flies away, and a patch of finely barred electric-blue on the wing. Jays live in the oak and mixed woodland around Dumfries and visit larger wooded gardens. They are far more often heard than seen — usually as a harsh, tearing screech from deep cover.
Behaviour
In autumn jays become single-minded about acorns, carrying several at a time in the throat and bill and burying them individually across the woodland floor — several thousand in a good season. Many are never recovered and germinate, which makes the jay one of the most effective planters of oak woodland in Britain. The rest of the year they take insects, caterpillars, and other birds' eggs and young.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Crows (Corvidae)
- Size
- 34–35 cm · jackdaw-sized
- UK status
- Green-listed
Photo by Luc Viatour, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons