Eurasian Jay

Description:

This beauty here is an easy-to-hear-but-difficult-to-spot bird, and one of my favorites from our counties... except that this winter I'm enjoying their presence under my windows quite regularly - I see three or four of them almost every day. The Eurasian Jay is a beautiful brown corvid, size of pigeon, with azure blue wing panels and streaked crown and black "moustaches". Lovely and very smart bird, discreet and difficult to observe because it is always well hidden; and, in forests, often the first "sentinelle" to alert other animals of foreign presence by it's loud screams - this loud calls are the origins of this species' names in some languages, e.g. in bosnian/croatian 'Šojka kreštalica', meaning: "Jay screamer"...

Habitat:

Seen in the backyard of our residence building, at outskirts of a small urban center in Geneva lake valley. The backyard counts a number of deciduous trees and shrubs, most of them spontaneous and local, some planted. The backyard neighbours a meadow (used for producing hay) and a lowland deciduous (mainly oak and beech) forest, and some other agricultural fields.