Hello everyone and welcome back to the next instalment from Voiceforwildlife where today we will be exploring a bird that occasionally enters our gardens, but when it does it gets us all out of our seats to take a closer look - the Jay.
The Jay, although surprisingly agile, is a large, bulky bird around 35cm in length. They can fly through areas filled with obstacles with ease - even with their large wings that are around 50cm long. The Jays cap (situated on the top of the head) is a crisp white with many small black strips that slope from the top of the beak to the back of the head. Both eyes are also surrounded by the same clean, snow white feathers and appear with a constant 'shocked' expression (created by the bright, slightly large eyes). Their beaks are bold and a metallic silver with a thick, black strap extending from the bottom half of the beak around each side of the head. The feathers under the neck are a brown-white that looks similar to a flat beard slowly escalating down into a pale purple-brown on the chest and the back of the neck. Much like the Goldfinch most of their colour occurs on the wings beginning with a bright, luminous sky blue patch, interrupted by a collection of black lines creating a pixelated effect. Then this extends into a whisper of dull white situated under neath a large patch of twilight black, extending into a long thin tail. Both males and females posses these colourful features and their call is a heart stopping screech, much deeper than that of a fox looking for a mate.
Jays are opportunistic, eating just about anything they can find - both natural and un-natural. Their natural habitat consists mainly of woodland as they take advantage of the abundance of food, living throughout the entire United Kingdom apart from northern areas of Scotland. Large Oak trees become fully stocked with acorns that are easily visible when leaves fall in Autumn. Moreover fallen apples from trees are a quick, open meal along with any peanuts, seed and kitchen scraps that you place on open bird tables (as Jays are too big to balance on hanging feeders). They will cash (store) these peanuts and acorns in a safe place ,if they are in abundance, then collect them when the weather plummets. As they live in the woods there is a healthy number of small rodents which Jays will happily catch and eat with their fast manoeuvres and hunting techniques, along with birds eggs and young. Jays have been recorded to store hundreds or even thousands of Acorns and other food sources that will last.
Their nests, much like crows, are structured with sticks and twigs and are usually situated in trees. They are lined with hairs, and other thin materials to strengthen the structure and insulation in time for breeding at the end of April. Although Jays only have one brood a year, pairs will mate for life. The female alone will incubate up to ten eggs for around 20 days before the male helps out in feeding the newly hatched chicks. These chicks will then fledge only 20 days later with a high success rate. There are an estimated 170,000 Jay breeding territories in the UK (statistics given from the RSPB)
So next time you spot a bright eyed Jay skipping through a forest searching for food, just remember to place out some peanuts on your bird table - as you nether know when you'll receive a special visitor.
(No credit is taken for the photo)
-please feel free to ask any questions you have-