Black-headed Jay

How to identify

Field marks

1. Head mostly black, with a prominent crest
2. Fine white lines on the throat
3. Bill pale, rather short and thick
4. Body mostly gray; tail relatively long

Voice

Most often a harsh “kraaa”, sometimes raspy, sometimes rather nasal.

Similar species

Eurasian Jay

Similar in size to Eurasian Jay but more slender, with a more prominent crest, a pale, rather short, thick bill, and a longer tail.

Where and when it's recorded

Black-headed Jay has been recorded at 21 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 3 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. SattalIndia1,092 records
2. PangotIndia779 records
3. Munsyari – Bheema WodeyarIndia454 records

Countries and regions with the most records

IndiaNepalPakistan

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The black-headed jay or lanceolated jay (Garrulus lanceolatus) is a species of passerine bird in the crow family Corvidae. It is found in open wooded country across the Himalayas and into eastern Afghanistan. A relatively large songbird, it has a largely grey body with a black head, an untidy crest, white streaks on the throat, and a pale bill.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions