Keep your eyes peeled for the secretive Jay
THE Jay is a handsome bird. Some people call it ‘ the blue jay’ drawing attention to one of its most striking features: a bright panel of light blue feathers finely streaked with wiggly black lines covering the ‘elbow’ of each wing.
In addition to its blue wing patches, the colourful Jay sports a number of other striking features. It has a black moustache extending back from the base of its bill. It has a white throat and white streaks on its forehead interspersed with black spots and speckles. It has a black tail, and when it opens its wings to fly away, it has large white patches on its rump and wings.
All of these features are made all the more striking as they are set against the bird’s overall pinkish, greyish, brownish background plumage.
The Jackdaw-sized Jays that live in Ireland are regarded a distinct variation or race as the pinkish plumage is darker, more a red-brown than a grey-brown.
All of these bright colours are a bit at odds with the fact that the Jay is a member of the crow family.
Jays are shy woodland birds that are difficult to approach. They feed on a wide variety of food sources including seeds, berries and insects. Like Magpies, they are known to raid other birds’ nests and eat eggs and chicks.
Jays have been recorded visiting bird tables and gardens, but these elusive birds rarely do so as they are very vigilant and cautious of people and rarely emerge from a safety of tree cover.
Acorns are a favourite food at this time of year. They will eat their fill and bury stores to tide them over lean times during the winter when food is scare. It follows, therefore, that oak woods with trees bearing lots of fruit at present are good places to visit at this time of year in the hope of seeing a Jay.
Jays bury large numbers of acorns and are remarkably skilled at remembering where they hid them. However, they fail to relocate many of them and these go on to germinate and produce saplings benefitting from being buried by the busy Jays.
While the secretive Jay is usually difficult to see it may give away its presence by the loud screeching alarm call that it makes when it senses danger. And, furthermore, as autumn advances and more leaves fall from the trees the colourful Jay may be easier to spot.