Eurasian Jay

How to recognise it

• Sexes alike: reddish-grey body, whitish throat and black moustache stripe
• Azure blue wing coverts barred black, and a large white patch on the black outer wing
• In flight, a white rump against a dark tail, and black, white and pale blue wings
• About the size of a Jackdaw, with a crest and a stout grey-black bill

Call and song

The commonest call is a loud, hoarse screeching "räk, räk", mainly as an alarm but sometimes as a contact call. It also gives a mewing call like a Common Buzzard's and can mimic other birds, especially Northern Goshawk. The song is quiet, with a deep, whistling tone, and is heard in late winter.

Where and when

It breeds commonly in southern and central Sweden and north to central Norrland. It is reported from all 21 counties, most often in October to January. In some years large numbers of jays on the move are seen along the Norrland coast. In the coniferous zone it prefers rich pine and spruce forest with a high share of spruce. It is not on the Swedish Red List 2025.

Food and behaviour

It eats fruit, insects, reptiles, birds' eggs, nestlings and small mammals. In autumn it stores food for winter, in the south mainly nuts and acorns. It flies silently, gliding between the trees, but on the ground it moves clumsily with hops. It lives in pairs in the breeding season, otherwise in family groups or loose flocks. The nest sits in a tree, often a spruce, 2 to 10 metres up.