The green jay (''Cyanocorax luxuosus'') is a species of the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

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 ...

s, and is found in Central America. Adults are about long and variable in colour across their range; they usually have blue and black heads, green wings and mantle, bluish-green tails, black bills, yellow or brown eye rings, and dark legs. The basic diet consists of arthropods, vertebrates, seeds, and fruit. The nest is usually built in a thorny bush; the female incubates the clutch of three to five eggs. This is a common species of jay with a wide range and 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 its conservation status as being 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 ...

Taxonomy

Some ornithologists treat the green jay as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...

with the

Inca jay The Inca jay or querrequerre (''Cyanocorax yncas'') is a bird species of the New World jays, which is native to the Andes of South America. Taxonomy The Inca jay was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1775 ...

of the Andes, with ''C. yncas luxuosus'' as the green jay and ''C. yncas yncas'' as the Inca jay.

Description

Green jays are in length. Weight ranges from . They have feathers of yellowish-white with blue tips on the top of the head, cheeks and nape, though some taxa have more blue than others. The breast and underparts range from bright yellow in the south to pale green in the north (e.g.,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

). The upper parts are rich green. It has large nasal bristles that form a distinct tuft in some subspecies, but are less developed in others. The color of the

iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

ranges from dark brownish to bright yellow depending on the subspecies.

Behavior

Green jays feed on a wide range of

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s and other

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s and various

cereal A cereal is any Poaceae, grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, Cereal germ, germ, and bran. Cereal Grain, grain crops are grown in greater quantit ...

grains. They take ebony (''

Ebenopsis ''Ebenopsis'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The name is derived from the Greek language, Greek words ''ἔβενος'' (''ébenos''), meaning ebony, and ''ὄψις'' (''opsis''), meaning "view." Species * ''Ebenopsis co ...

'' spp.) seeds where these occur, and also any

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 ...

species'

acorn The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and '' Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne ...

s, which they will

cache Cache, caching, or caché may refer to: Places United States * Cache, Idaho, an unincorporated community * Cache, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Cache, Oklahoma, a city in Comanche County * Cache, Utah, Cache County, Utah * Cache County ...

. Meat and human scraps add to the diet when opportunity arises. Green jays have been observed using sticks as tools to extract

s from tree bark.

Breeding

Green jays usually build a nest in a tree or in a thorny bush or thicket, and the female lays three to five

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

. Only the female incubates, but both parents take care of the young.

Voice

As with most of the typical jays, this species has a very extensive voice repertoire. The bird's most common call makes a ' sound, but many other unusual notes also occur. One of the most distinctive calls sounds like an alarm bell.

Distribution and habitat

The green jay occurs from southern

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 ...

. The similar

has a disjunct home range in the northern Andes of South America.

Status

The green jay is a common species throughout most of its wide range. It is an adaptable species and the population is thought to be increasing as clearing of forests is creating new areas of suitable habitat. No particular threats have been identified, and the

has rated its conservation status as being of "

References

External links

Green jay stamps
from

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

a
bird-stamps.org
* * * * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q918078

green jay The green jay (''Cyanocorax luxuosus'') is a species of the New World jays, and is found in Central America. Adults are about long and variable in colour across their range; they usually have blue and black heads, green wings and mantle, bluish ...

Birds of the Rio Grande valleys Birds of Mexico Birds of Belize Birds of the Yucatán Peninsula Birds of the Northern Andes Tool-using animals

Taxa named by René Lesson Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN