Jackdaw or Jay?

These two get mixed up constantly. Here is what actually separates them, taken from each bird's own page.

A jackdaw is uniformly grey-black with a pale grey nape and a striking pale grey-white eye, and it walks about confidently on lawns and roofs in noisy groups. A jay is pink-bodied, shy, usually alone or in twos, and shows the white rump and blue wing patch a jackdaw never has.

Side by side

	Jackdaw	Jay
Size	About 34cm — clearly smaller than a carrion crow or rook, roughly woodpigeon-sized but slimmer.	About 35cm with a 55cm wingspan — bigger than a blackbird, slimmer and longer-tailed than a woodpigeon.
Where you'll see it	On chimneys, roof ridges and lawns, and dropping in on feeders and scraps.	Working along a treeline, or briefly on a lawn burying acorns in October before dashing back to cover.
What it eats	Omnivorous — insects, worms, seeds, grain, fruit, eggs, scraps and whatever a lawn or bin yields.	Acorns above all, plus insects, seeds and fruit, and sometimes eggs and nestlings in spring.
When	Resident all year, most conspicuous in late winter when pairs start prospecting chimneys.	Resident all year, but overwhelmingly most visible in September and October during the acorn harvest.
Status	Green listed	Green listed

Still not sure? Describe what you saw and we will rank every garden bird against it — including these two.

Both descriptions are taken from the species pages, which cite the BTO and RSPB. Reviewed 2026-09-20.