A jay with blue wings and a gray head, it searches for a varied diet in trees and on the ground.
It has a gray head, black face, and blue wings.
The Black-headed Jay is a forest and plantation bird endemic to the western Himalayas. India's 2025 assessment describes it as both resident and an altitudinal migrant. Its estimated range is about 83,589 square kilometres. Records from across India are used to report long-term trends separately from recent annual changes.
The assessment labels the long-term trend as declining and the current annual trend as stable. The long-term estimate is a 31.06% decrease, but its confidence interval spans possible increases as well as declines. The current annual estimate is a 1.46% increase, with an interval that also includes both directions. Records for this jay in forests and plantations are summarized by region in the western Himalayas.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
India's 2025 assessment classifies the Black-headed Jay's long-term trend as declining and its current annual trend as stable. The 31.06% long-term decline estimate has a confidence interval that also includes increases. Its estimated range is about 83,589 square kilometres.