General
Gray Jay: Medium-sized, fluffy, crestless jay with gray upperparts, paler underparts, and a short bill. Tail is long and white-tipped. Three distinguishable populations occur: Pacific, Rocky Mountain, and Taiga. All have black eyes, bills, legs and feet, and white ear patches and throats. Juvenile is gray overall with white moustache stripe and gray bill.
Range and Habitat
Gray Jay: Resident from Alaska east to Labrador and south across the northern U.S. Most commonly found in coniferous forests.
Breeding and Nesting
Gray Jay: Two to five white to olive eggs, spotted with olive and brown, are laid in a solid bowl of twigs and bark strips, lined with feathers and fur, and built near the trunk of a dense conifer. Incubation ranges from 16 to 18 days and is carried out by the female.
Foraging and Feeding
Gray Jay: Eats arthropods, berries, carrion, bird eggs and young, and fungi. Forages in trees, shrubs, and on the ground; chases insects in the air.
Readily Eats
Cracked Corn, Suet, Sunflower Seed
Vocalization
Gray Jay: Emits "whee-ah" and "chuck-chuck"; also gives scolding screams and whistles.
Similar Species
Gray Jay: Clark's Nutcracker is chunkier and has medium gray upperparts and underparts and a short white tail with black central feathers.