The blue jay bird is famous for its brilliant blue feathers, but these feathers are not blue. Unlike most other birds, these birds lack blue pigments in their plumage. Blue is not a pigment but an ...

Blue jays are bright blue on top, white or light gray underneath, and have black and white bars on their wings and tail ...

Despite the high numbers of birds (if I’m lucky) there is a relative calm about the morning gathering right up until that special moment when the blue jays arrive. Then things get a little crazy.

I seem to have become a bird watcher – a delightful pastime ... I learnt the surprising fact that the jay’s feather isn’t actually blue ! There is no pigment, the structure of the feather ...

the jayOpens in new window ] This “structural colour” phenomenon explains why the jay in the wood has blue in its wing feathers. In many birds, just as in butterflies, the colour depends on ...