The unicolored jay (''Aphelocoma unicolor'')

Etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...

: ''Aphelocoma'', from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

ized

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''apheles-'' (from ἀφελής-) "simple" + Latin ''coma'' (from Greek ''kome'' κόμη) "hair", in reference to the lack of striped or banded feathers in this genus, compared to other jays. ''unicolor'',

for "unicolored". is an ''Aphelocoma'' jay native to

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

s of northwestern

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

and southern and southeastern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, from central

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

west to central Guerrero, southern

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

and extreme southern

San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí), is one of the 32 states which compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and i ...

. It is apparently a basal member of its

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

(Rice ''et al.'' 2003). At Montebello, Chiapas, it is a cooperative breeder (Webber and Brown 1994).

References

*Rice, Nathan H.; Martínez-Meyer, Enrique & Peterson, A. Townsend (2003): Ecological niche differentiation in the ''Aphelocoma'' jays: a phylogenetic perspective. '' Biol. J. Linn. Soc.'' 80(3): 369–383. PDF fulltext
*Webber, T., and Jerram L. Brown. 1994. Natural History of the Unicolored Jay in Chiapas, Mexico. Proceedings of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology 5(2):135-160. *Webber, T., and Nancy G. Stotz. 2019. Vocalizations of Unicolored Jays (''Aphelocoma unicolo''r) at Montebello, Chiapas, Mexico. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 57 (1): 1-75.

Footnotes

External links

* CONABIO
Unicolored jay drawing
Retrieved 2007-FEB-26.
RangeMaps & synopsis
nfoNatura NatureServe
Picture
VIREO Aphelocoma Birds of Mexico Birds of El Salvador Birds of Guatemala Birds of Honduras Birds described in 1847 Taxa named by Bernard du Bus de Gisignies Birds of the Sierra Madre del Sur {{Corvidae-stub