The black-throated magpie-jay (''Calocitta colliei'') is a strikingly long-tailed

magpie-jay The magpie-jays are a genus, ''Calocitta'', of the family Corvidae (crow-like birds) native to the southern part of North America. Sometimes placed in the genus '' Cyanocorax''. The two known species are known to form hybrids. The genus was ...

of northwestern

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 Guate ...

Taxonomy

The black-throated magpie-jay was formally described in 1829 by the Irish zoologist

Nicholas Aylward Vigors Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – 26 October 1840) was an Irish zoologist and politician. He popularized the classification of birds on the basis of the quinarian system. Early life Vigors was born at Old Leighlin, County Carlow on 1785 as fir ...

from a specimen collected at

San Blas, Nayarit San Blas is both a municipality and municipal seat located on the Pacific coast of Mexico in Nayarit. City San Blas is a port and popular tourist destination, located about north of Puerto Vallarta, and west of the state capital Tepic, and th ...

, Mexico. The specimen had been obtained by members of an expedition to explore the western coast of North America captained by

Frederick William Beechey Frederick William Beechey (17 February 1796 – 29 November 1856) was an English naval officer, artist, explorer, hydrographer and writer. Life and career He was the son of two painters, Sir William Beechey, RA and his second wife, Anne ...

on ''

HMS Blossom Two ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Blossom'': * was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1806. She was converted to a survey ship in 1825, was hulked as a lazarette in 1833 and broken up in 1848. * was a wooden screw gunboat, originall ...

''. Vigors coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Pica colleriei'', with the specific epithet chosen to honour Alexander Collie, the surgeon onboard the ''Blossom'', who had presented the specimen to the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

. The black-throated magpie-jay is now one of two species placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

'' Calocitta'' that was introduced in 1841 by the English zoologist

George Robert Gray George Robert Gray FRS (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years. He was the younger broth ...

. The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

: no subspecies are recognised.

Description

This species is 58.5 to 76.5 cm (23 to 30 inches) long, more than half of which is the

tail The tail is the section at the rear end of certain kinds of animals’ bodies; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals ...

, and weight is 225-251 grams (8-9 oz.). Only a very few

corvids Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In colloquial English, they are known as the crow family or corvids. Currentl ...

, including the

black-billed magpie The black-billed magpie (''Pica hudsonia''), also known as the American magpie, is a bird in the corvid family found in the western half of North America. It is black and white, with black areas on the wings and tail showing iridescent hints of ...

, the

red-billed blue magpie The red-billed blue magpie (''Urocissa erythroryncha'') is a species of bird in the crow family, Corvidae. It is about the same size as the Eurasian magpie, but has a much longer tail, one of the longest of any corvid. It is long and weighs . ...

and the closely related

white-throated magpie-jay The white-throated magpie-jay (''Calocitta formosa'') is a large Central American species of magpie-jay. It ranges in Pacific-slope thorn forest from Jalisco, Mexico to Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Magpie-jays are noisy, gregarious birds, often tra ...

, have a comparable tail length. The upperparts are blue with white tips to the tail feathers; the underparts are white. The bill, legs, head, and conspicuous crest are black except for a pale blue crescent over the eyes and a patch under the eye. In juveniles, the crest has a white tip and the patch below the eye is smaller and darker blue than in adults. In most birds, the throat and chest are also black, but some in the southern part of the range have various amounts of white there. The calls are varied, loud, raucous, sometimes

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittaco ...

-like.

Distribution and habitat

This species occurs in pairs or small groups in woodland, except for humid woodland, and partially open areas on the Pacific Slope of Mexico from southern

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 72 municipalities; the ...

south to

Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal ...

and northwestern

Colima Colima (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Colima ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Colima), is one of the 31 states that make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It shares its name with its capital and main city, Colima. Colima i ...

, for a total of 160,000 km². As of 1993 there was some evidence of a population decline. The species has become established in southern San Diego County (2013), especially in the Tijuana River Valley. The birds are presumably descendants of escapees from nearby

Tijuana Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and < ...

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, where the trade in birds is unregulated.

Behavior

The diet is the

omnivorous An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nut ...

one typical of the

crow family Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In colloquial English, they are known as the crow family or corvids. Currently, 133 ...

. The nest is also typical of the family: a big cup of sticks lined with softer material. The female lays 3 to 7 whitish eggs with brown and gray spots. This species interbreeds with the

in Jalisco and Colima, where intermediate birds are common. It has been considered a subspecies of the white-throated magpie-jay, ''Calocitta formosa colliei''.

References

External links

Bird-stamps.org: Stamps of Mexico with species range maps
* ttp://www.whozoo.org/Intro2002/ChrisYork/MagpieJay.jpeg Photo-High Res--(Close-up) ttp://whozoo.org/Intro2002/ChrisYork/CEY_MagpieJay.htm Whozoo.org: Black-throated magpie-jay article+ ''high resolution photo''. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1586267 black-throated magpie-jay Endemic birds of Western Mexico Birds of the Sierra Madre Occidental Birds of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt Natural history of the Mexican Plateau Natural history of Sinaloa Natural history of Sonora black-throated magpie-jay Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN