SpaceTyrannosaur

I think it’s been established on my twitter and on here that I have a deep love for Eurasian Jays.

I really, really do.

I’m not sure exactly why perhaps it’s the fact it’s a corvid that looks so exotic compared to its other corvid cousins.

That said I’ve always liked the corvid family, seemingly going against the grain of other peoples preferences. Most people I meet don’t think high of Crows and Ravens viewing them as harbingers of something dark and evil.

No amount of my pleading with them that they’re really not all that bad and that they’re a very intelligent species appears to be enough to change peoples minds.

But those same people who talk negatively about Magpies and their cousins will see a “colourful looking bird” of the likes they have seen “No bird quite like it!” Described in a varying degree of colours from ‘orange’ to ‘beige with a flash of blue and colourful eyes.”
They tend to be cheerful having seen this colourful bird, perhaps thinking they’ve seen some exotic species. Almost always what they’ve seen is a Jay.

“I think it was a Jay you saw,” I’ll say, and get my phone out to show them a picture, “Is this what you saw?”

“Yes!” They’ll beam excitedly.

They often seem shocked when I tell them they’re part of the same family as Crows.
Despite this, it doesn’t seem to make them automatically hate them or at the very least be less inclined to like them.

But their excitement over it never seems to outmatch my own excitement about The Jay.

Perhaps I am falling prey to the same cognitive bias as them. “Oh look a colourful more exotic looking bird! These are my favourite!”  And there is probably some truth to it.

After all, I’m the same person who has been and is always in pursuit of photographs of the common yet elusive Kingfisher. And surely there is only one real reason for that, they’re exotic looking little birds to have in such a non-exotic place such as Britain!

It’s not just the colours that endear me to the Jay though, it’s something as simple as their moustaches!

I think what brings them to the top of my list of favourite birds is that they have a very prehistoric dinosaurian look about them, and though shy, you can entice them into your garden for fleeting glances by putting out peanuts and collecting acorns (Never collecting more than a few a time).

The noises they make also make them one of my favourites, I’m never quite sure if their calls quite match the way they look. I guess you could say they look more exotic than they sound! But that only makes me love them more! It’s not exactly a pleasant sound.

It isn’t like listening to a songbird like a blackbird singing.

But the noises they make are certainly a reminder of their dinosaurian nature!

Another reason they are on the top of my list is that every time I see one I am reminded of some paleoart I have seen of an extinct species of dinosaur called ‘Microraptor’ 
While the picture used in that link doesn’t scream Eurasian Jay and more ‘Crow’ I have seen art depicting A Microraptor as much more colourful with flashes of blue.

Why that image has stuck with me more I don’t know, again, it’s possibly a very superficial thing and being attracted to the colourfulness of it.

Nevertheless, for whatever reason my brain seems to be reminded of these extinct dinosaurs when seeing A Jay more than when seeing a Crow.

I’m in an obsessive pursuit for the perfect photograph of A Jay. I’ve have a few photographs yet none of them are good enough for my liking.

I realise there is probably no such thing as a ‘perfect’ photograph. But the day I get a clear photograph of Jay, with a catch light in its eyes and perhaps even something akin to expression its face I will be looking at it and finding flaws still…

But I’d still be very happy with that photograph.