Eurasian jay

Eurasian jay
Temporal range:
Nominate subspecies in Belgium
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
Genus: Garrulus
Species:
G. glandarius
Binomial name
Garrulus glandarius
Subspecies

33 (in eight groups) - see text

Range
Synonyms
  • Corvus glandarius Linnaeus, 1758

The Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius), also known simply as the jay without any epithets in the United Kingdom and Ireland, is a species of passerine bird in the crow family Corvidae. It has pinkish brown plumage with a black stripe on each side of a whitish throat, a bright blue panel on the upper wing and a black tail. The Eurasian jay is a woodland bird that occurs over a vast region from western Europe and north-west Africa to the Indian subcontinent and farther to the eastern seaboard of Asia and down into south-east Asia. Across this vast range, several distinct racial forms have evolved which look different from each other, especially when comparing forms at the extremes of its range.