Jay (Eurasian)

Field guide to the most commonly encountered mammals and birds

Here, we provide some basic information regarding commonly observed species (plus some others about which we have had queries).

Feel free to contact us by email if you have any questions regarding species you have encountered on the site.

For more information about mammals, we recommend the Mammal Society's species hub, here. For birds, excellent resources are available from the RSPB (here) and the BTO (here).

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(C) jyrx (shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license)

Scientific Name: Garrulus glandarius

Appearance: Smaller than jackdaw. White crown striped dark, white throat and thick black ‘moustache’. Body plumage pinkish grey-brown. Light blue panel barred dark on wings. White patch on black wings and large white rump evident in flight. Black tail and short, thick, dark bill. Sexes alike.

Song: Large repertoire of varied, but largely simple, calls, including mimcry of, e.g., buzzard, sparrowhawk, carrion crow. Soft, quiet ‘song’ rarely heard or described. Most frequently heard vocalisations are nasal mewing pee-oo, or loud, harsh skairk!, likened to the sound of tearing cloth.

When heard: Resident. Commoner calls described above produced year-round.

Example: