Eurasian Jay

Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius) is a colourful woodland corvid with pinkish-brown body plumage, a white throat, black moustache, bright blue wing panel and black tail. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It feeds on acorns, other seeds, insects and small animals across Eurasian forest, often caching acorns in the ground and thereby moving tree seeds away from the parent plant. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).