The bushy-crested jay (''Cyanocorax melanocyaneus'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family

Corvidae 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, 13 ...

. It is found in

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. ...

, where its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

s and heavily degraded former forest. There are two

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

, ''C. m. melanocyaneus'' which is found in Guatemala and southern El Salvador, and ''C. m. chavezi'' from Honduras and northeastern Nicaragua.

Description

The adult bushy-crested jay has a length of . The tail is long and the central feathers are graduated. The sexes look alike; the head, neck, breast and upper mantle are black while the remaining upper parts are dark blue with a sheen of green or violet. The underparts are plain greenish-blue, the undersides of the wings are grey and the underside of the tail is blackish. The head bears a stubble-like erectile crown of feathers, the

beak The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food ...

is black and relatively small, the irises are yellow and the legs black.

Distribution and habitat

This

jay A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian m ...

is native to Central America where it is found in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua at altitudes between about . Its habitat is humid forests, especially those with

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

and

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

, forest verges, glades and areas of scrub. It adapts well to degradation of its habitat and has become common in coffee plantations and around agricultural land.

Ecology

The species is social and lives in small groups. These forage in the lower storey of trees and in the undergrowth, often descending to the ground to search through the

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that have fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituent ...

. The diet consists of invertebrates, seeds, nuts and fruits. The nest is built in dense undergrowth out of twigs and lined with plant fibres. One female lays a clutch of three or four eggs in late April or early May. Another female shares the incubation of the eggs with her, and many birds assist with the feeding of the young. In one nest, eleven different adults helped feed the brood, as well as some juveniles that had hatched earlier.

Status

''Cyanocorax melanocyaneus'' seems to be adaptable and is coping with the degradation of its natural environment by moving to manmade habitats such as coffee plantations and cropland. It has a wide range and the population is thought to be increasing, so the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has rated it as a

species of least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q944751

bushy-crested jay The bushy-crested jay (''Cyanocorax melanocyaneus'') is a species of bird in the family Corvidae. It is found in Central America, where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and heavily degraded former forest. T ...

Birds of Guatemala Birds of Honduras Birds of El Salvador Least concern biota of North America

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot