Unlike the Blue Jay the Gray Jay is rather tame in comparison. It will feed right out of your hands (try doing that with a Blue Jay).

Gray Jays in this area can be found in Algonquin Park about a 3 hour drive northwest of Ottawa, Ontario. It is a bird of the Black Spruce forest of the Algonquin bogs. The bird is seldom found south of the park but common in the park up to the tree line.

In order to survive the long cold winters up here the Gray Jay will hide as much food as it can find during non-winter months. They have special, enlarged salivary glands so that they can cover the food they hide with a stricky coating to fasten it more securely to the hiding places. In order to recall where all this food is hidden the Gray Jay must have a very good memory.

Image taken handheld with the 300D (still ticking close to 3 years now) and Canon 35/2 lens. This is almost a 100% crop of a larger image showing the entire body and a hand the bird is resting on.


*** This is a small (near)100% crop of the Gray Jay's head.