Photo: unknown
| Greek Name: | hê kíssa or kítta [Latin: gaia, German: Eichelhäher]. | |
| Description: |
This most colorful member of the Corvidae family in Europe sports a "short bill, domed head, broad wings, chesty body, and rather long tail" (Cramp viii: 7); the wings are particularly colorful with narrow blue and black striped bars on the outer greater coverts. L 34-35 cm, wingspan 52-58 cm. | |
| Habitat: |
Found everywhere in Europe, the jay prefers densely wooded lowlands where trees, scrubs, and woody undergrowth offer easy cover. | |
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Behaviour: |
A rather shy and timid bird where persecuted, the Eurasian Jay keeps close to cover and reacts to perceived threats with loud screeching calls and by mimicking the calls of predatory birds. Not a very graceful flyer. "Over open country, flight laborious, with hints of stall followed by exaggerated bursts of wing beats, occasional floating and terminal dipping" (Cramp viii: 8). Buries its food, especially acorns. | |
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Ancient Associations: |
The jay was known for its garrulity and its gluttony (Scholia on Aristophanes' Peace 496), and ancient writers praise its ability to mimic voices, including the human voice (although in some cases the sources may mean the magpie rather than the jay). The Greeks considered jays edible (Porter 104) and trapped them in springes, using olives as bait (Dion. de av. 3.18, Thompson 147). Aristotle claims that eleós (a kind of owl) and aigôlios (another not securely identified owl) hunt the jay at night (HA. 592 b 11). He also accurately describes the jay's habit to gather and store acorns (HA. 616 a 3). The hellenistic poet Nikander (prob. ca. 150-100 BCE) wrote a poem about transformation myths (Heteroioumena), a precursor of Ovid's Metamorphoses, in which he claimed that one of the Emathides, the daughters of Pierus, was changed into a jay (Nicand. ap. Anton. Lib. c. 9, cf. Ov. Met. 5.294. 663). |
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| Sources: |
B. Bruun/ H. Delin/L. Svenson,
Der Kosmos Vogelführer: Die Vögel Deutschlands und Europas,
10th ed. Stuttgart: Franck-Kosmos, 1993, p. 214. |
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