Jay . It is the most forest species with striking plumage among the corvids, it is quite noisy and its short flights and irregular beat give the sensation of being heavy.
Summary
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- 1 Features
- 2 Voice
- 3 Distribution
- 4 Habitat
- 5 Movements
- 6 Food
- 7 Playback
- 8 Interactions between species
- 9 Behavior
- 10 Source
features
Medium-sized bird, 32-34 cm, with a plump appearance, rounded wings and a relatively long tail. It has a brownish or pinkish-brown color, the wings are black and in flight there are striking white spots, the tail is also black, the rump white, and it has a characteristic black mustache.
The crown, white with a black longitudinal barre, is erectile.
Voice
The most frequent thing is to hear his cry of alarm sometimes in chorus, since he quickly alerts of any type of danger, including our presence. It also emits a lot of hoarse voices, clicks and meows, it also imitates the voices of other birds or even noises and cries of other animals.
The name of the species comes precisely from this singular characteristic, ‘to rent’ in Spanish has a meaning that means to imitate.
Distribution
Its distribution in the Iberian Peninsula is related to that of the large forest masses. It is common in the North of the Peninsula, it is absent in large deforested areas of both plateaus, the Ebro valley and Gualdalquivir and arid areas of the Southeast, it is scarce in the rest, but it is present in most of the areas where forests present the extent and maturity appropriate for their settlement.
It does not breed in the Canary Islands , the Balearic Islands , Ceuta or Melilla , although in the Balearic Islands it has been observed, on rare occasions, as a wanderer during the winter. The species is present from sea level to the upper limit of the forest in high mountain areas.
Habitat
Regarding his habitat selection, he is a forestry generalist, without a marked preference for any specific forest formation. If it is less abundant in areas of fragmented forest, where its presence is subject to the existence of patches of habitat of a certain extension.
Some studies point to a preference for coniferous forests during the breeding season, decreasing their numbers during the winter to occupy areas with a predominance of phagaceae.
Movements
It is a sedentary species in the Iberian Peninsula , however the populations of northern Europe make irruptions in more temperate latitudes in especially cold winters or after autumns of low acorn production, some specimens can cross the Pyrenees .
The most notable movements, and always speaking of short distances, are those observed by some authors and consist of the nomination of juvenile individuals and temperature escapes in especially harsh winters.
Feeding
Their diet is very diverse, with a marked seasonal variation, which responds to the availability of different types of food throughout the year. In spring the animal portion is the most important, feeding on insects and small vertebrates, later it begins to include cereals and summer fruits in its diet, throughout the summer the vegetable component increases, being almost its exclusive source of food during the autumn and winter .
During these periods, it eats a wide variety of fruits and seeds, with a clear preference for acorns, which can be fed the following spring thanks to the fact that it stored a huge amount of them during the peak production season.
Reproduction
The breeding season runs from April to June. The nest is not very elaborate and is situated at a relatively low height and close to the trunk of trees and shrubs. They have a single annual laying, although they do make replacement, of between 3 and 7 speckled green eggs.
Incubation lasts 16-19 days and the chicks leave the nest at 21 days, however they continue to be fed by both parents until 6 or 8 weeks of age.
Interactions between species
The interactions of the Jay with other animal and plant species are multiple and varied, since, in addition to being an opportunistic predator species of a large number of small vertebrates, it also turns out to be the usual prey of numerous predators.
But, without a doubt, the most important facet of its interaction with other species is its role as a dispersant of seeds of some plants, especially of the acorns of the phagaceae, for which this species is the main long-distance spreader.
Behavior
It is the loneliest of the corvids; it moves in pairs throughout the year, except in late winter when it has busy and noisy gatherings and in summer when family groups can be observed.
One of the most outstanding behaviors of the species is related to feeding and is that it collects food during the autumn-winter, mainly acorns, to respond to possible periods of future scarcity of resources.
