A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the crow family, Corvidae.

For example, the Eurasian magpie seems more closely related to the Eurasian jay than to the East Asian blue and green magpies, whereas the blue jay is not closely related to either.

[2][3] The term jaywalking was coined in the first decade of the 1900s to label persons crossing a busy street carelessly and becoming a traffic hazard.

[4] The term began to imply recklessness or impertinent behavior as the convention became established.

[5] In January 2014, Canadian author Robert Joseph Greene embarked on a lobbying campaign among ornithologists in Europe and North America to get Merriam-Websters Dictionary to have a "Jabber of Jays" as an official term under bird groups.