How to Identify aCanada Jay
Perisoreus canadensis · 9.8–11.4 in (25–29 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
Fluffy gray body with a white forehead and throat, a dark gray cap over the rear crown, and a short black bill. Sexes look alike.
Female
Identical to the male in the field.
Male photo: Walter Siegmund (talk) / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Second photo: Alan Vernon / Wikimedia, CC BY 2.0
Field marks
- Fluffy, soft-looking plumage with no crest
- White face and forehead with a dark rear crown
- Short black bill, unlike a longer-billed magpie
- Glides silently between trees
Similar species
What it sounds like
A soft whistled "wheeoo" and a range of chuckles, clicks and imitations.
Behaviour that gives it away
Glues thousands of food items to tree bark with sticky saliva through the summer, then lives on those caches all winter.
Habitat & range
Boreal and subalpine conifer forest across Canada and the western mountains.
When you'll see it
Present all year in northern and western North America.
What it eats
Almost anything — insects, berries, carrion, fungi and food taken from campsites.
Did you know?
It nests in late winter, incubating eggs at temperatures far below freezing on food cached the previous summer.
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