The Gray Jay in the Blue Mountains and the northeastern corner of Washington has a solid gray back with no brown or streaks, and a black nape. The face, forehead, and neck are white, with a little gray at the top of the head. The belly is gray. Juveniles are dark gray with light gray mustaches.
White or light gray underneath, various shades of blue, black, and white above. Blue Jays make a large variety of calls that carry long distances.
Compare with Similar Species- Florida Scrub-Jay.
Light scattering is similar to the effects of a prism. A blue jay’s wings contain tiny pockets made of air and keratin, the same protein that makes up our hair and fingernails. When light hits these pockets in the blue jay’s feathers, all of the colors of the wavelength except blue are absorbed.
The Canada jay (Perisoreus canadensis), also known as the gray jay, grey jay, camp robber, or whisky jack, is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae. It is found in boreal forests of North America north to the tree line, and in the Rocky Mountains subalpine zone south to New Mexico and Arizona.
What they look like: Gray Jays are medium-sized, gray songbirds with lighter gray bellies. They have a long tail and a short, black bill. The tips of the dark-gray tail feathers are white. The head is grayish-white with a gray crown and white forehead.
Gray jays occur across northern North America, from northern Alaska east to Newfoundland and Labrador, and south to New Mexico and Arizona. These birds live in different kinds of coniferous and mixed forests.
Description. The Gray Jay Perisoreus canadensis is only slightly smaller than a Blue Jay and, silhouetted against the sky, the two birds are surprisingly similar, although the Gray Jay is a somewhat slower and weaker flier than its southern relative. Close up, the Gray Jay can hardly be confused with any other bird.
21 Common Gray Birds- Dark-eyed Junco.
There are ten species of jay in North America. These are the blue jay, brown jay, Canada jay, green jay, Mexican jay, pinyon jay, and Steller’s jay.
Steller’s Jays are large songbirds with large heads, chunky bodies, rounded wings, and a long, full tail. The bill is long, straight, and powerful, with a slight hook. Steller’s Jays have a prominent triangular crest that often stands nearly straight up from their head.
Steller’s and blue jays are the only North American jays with crests. Both are about 11-12 inches in size, with Steller’s being slightly larger. With its black hood and dark blue feathers, Steller’s is easy to distinguish from the blue jay, which has a light grayish chest and white spotting on the wings and tail.
Its plumage is lavender-blue to mid-blue in the crest, back, wings, and tail, and its face is white. The underside is off-white and the neck is collared with black which extends to the sides of the head. The wing primaries and tail are strongly barred with black, sky-blue, and white.
Birds That Look Like Blue Jays
Look for the Steller’s jay and California scrub-jay in the West, the green jay in south Texas, the Canada jay in northern forests, and the Florida scrub-jay in Florida.
Differences In Summer Plumage vs Winter Plumage
Blue Jays change plumage around June to July each year. However, instead of changing colors, they instead lose their feathers temporarily. So, they go bald, and this exposes the gray and black skin underneath.
The Blue Jay’s feather colour results from refraction, or distortion, of light by a peculiar inner structure of the feather substance. If the feather is crushed, the blue colour disappears. Shed feathers may often be seen in late summer, since adults go through a complete change of plumage between June and September.
The universe has a way of sending us signs and symbols when we need them most. In the case of blue jays, if they keep appearing to you, there could be some messages around strength, confidence, and/or communication that you’ll want to pay attention to.
Suet, mealworms, cracked corn, and sunflower seeds are other great options to attract jays, and natural food sources such as small fruits and berries—elderberries, cherries, wild grapes, blackberries, etc. —keep jays coming back for more.
Perisoreus canadensis was known as the Canada Jay from the 19th century until 1957—when the American Ornithologists’ Union changed the bird’s common name to Gray Jay.
Grey Jays are smart birds. They live in the northern half of North America, ranging from Alaska, through Canada, and down into northern New England.
They store food year-round by producing special saliva from large glands and molding the food into a sticky blob, gluing it behind flakes of bark, under lichen, in conifer needles, or in tree forks.
An adult gray jay, also known as the “whiskey jack” or “camp robber.” Photo by Minette Layne. The gray jay is a widespread inhabitant of boreal and sub-alpine forests across the northern United States and Canada. This bold and frequently tame songbird is as much an icon of northern forests as is the moose or the wolf.
The grey pileated finch (Coryphospingus pileatus), also known as the pileated finch, is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, where it has recently been moved to from the Emberizidae.
Measurements. Juncos vary across the country (see Regional Differences), but in general they’re dark gray or brown birds brightened up by a pink bill and white outer tail feathers that periodically flash open, particularly in flight. Dark-eyed Juncos are birds of the ground.