garrulus (chattering, noisy) glandarius (of acorns)
Sunday, April 21, 2019 — 9:14 am
Böblingen, Germany — hiking trails through the woods along the Panzerstrasse
In my experience, Eurasian Jays are skittish birds that never let me approach closely and almost always managed to get a branch or two between me and them. And although I did finally get a good look at several, I never got a good photograph.
The first one was the boldest, landing briefly in the middle branches of a large tree in the woods. Before I could get my camera to focus, it took off. But you can still see its basic pinkish-brown color, with black and white wings and face and a blue patch on the wing. They also have a white rump, and on a few occasions when I flushed one off the ground, its size and rump color made me think “flicker.”
I saw them frequently, if not well, along the trails. They seemed to generally be in pairs.
