Dear Tweeters,

I just returned from a 10-day trip to southern France. While there, I
purchased a framed print of some sort of jay, at a frame shop next to
our hotel in Montpellier. It really caught my eye, but I now find
that I can't ID it. I've checked in the NG Birds of NA, and in Lars
Jonsson's Birds of Europe. Perhaps it was just a jay that existed
only in the artist's imagination?

It has an overall blue cast and a black bill. There is blue from the
bill up the front of the face, over the top of the head and the crest,
which is not quite as long as that of a Steller's jay. There is a large
white area covering the upper chest, throat, and area surrounding the
eye, extending from the bill to the rear side of the head. There is a
black stripe coming down from the back part of the crest, along the
edge of the white area, with an angle that allows it to finish the
outline under the whitish area, so that it forms a bib across the
chest. Behind the black strip there are gray areas, with the
underparts being all gray. The gray does not extend to the nape of
the neck, which is blue. There are two faint white bands across the
blue of the rump. The back is mostly blue. The wing has a white wing
bar, with a bit of white on the upper trailing edge of the wing. There
appears to be white on the upper side of the corners of the tail. The
eye is light colored. The blue of the wing and tail has a sort of
hatch of black that makes a ladder effect. There are vague streaks of
gray across the back.

I also enjoyed seeing (and learning that they exist at all) crested
tits, blue tits, stonechats, rock partridges, pied flycatchers,
a treecreeper, etc, as well as a crow so tame that you could pet it
at the Parc Ornithologique on the way to Stes. Marie. In fact it
followed me around! Wished I'd had more time and scope along.

Bob Mauritsen
rhm at ms.washington.edu