Gray Jay

Gray Jay, adult

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Gray Jay juvenile

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Sound
4. Range
5. Conservation Status
6. Other Names

A widespread and confiding denizen of boreal and sub-alpine forests, the Gray Jay frequently approaches people for food. It may even land on your hand for a morsel. This tameness can also lead to the pilferage of food not offered, and is responsible for the colloquial name of "camp robber."

Cool Facts

• The Gray Jay stores large quantities of food for later use. It uses sticky saliva to glue small food items to tree branches above the height of the eventual snow line. It may be this food storage behavior that allows the jay to live so far north throughout the winter.

Description

• Large gray songbird.
• Long tail.
• Short, black bill.
• Pale gray face and forehead.
• Dark cap extending down nape and onto cheek.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike.

Immature

Juvenile entirely sooty black with white moustache mark. Pale bill eventually turns dark.

Sound

Calls soft and harsh, "cha-cha-cha-cah." Also clear whistled "whee-oo."

Range

Range Map

© 2003 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

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Summer Range

Resident in boreal forest from Alaska to Newfoundland, southward to northern New Hampshire, northern New York, and Minnesota, and southward in western mountains to Arizona and New Mexico.

Conservation Status

No obvious changes in populations.

Other Names

Mésangeai du Canada, Geai du Canada (French)
Canada Jay (English)

Sources used to construct this page:

Strickland, D., and H. Ouellet. 1993. Gray Jay (Perisoreus canadensis). In The Birds of North America, No. 40 (A. Poole, P. Stettenheim, and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA; The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.