Although blue jays appear to have blue feathers, they, in fact, aren’t blue; they are brown.

If you were to take a blue jay’s feather and break it down, the pigment left would be brown.

This is due to light scattering, which is when light passes through an object and is not reflected off of it.

To put it simply, when light hits a blue jay feather, all the colors pass through except blue due to a special cell found in their feathers.

This can also be seen when blue jays feathers become wet; they turn brown to their true natural color.