The Jamaican blackbird (''Nesopsar nigerrimus'') 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 New World blackbird and oriole

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Icteridae Icterids () or New World blackbirds make up a family, the Icteridae (), of small to medium-sized, often colorful, New World passerine birds. Most species have black as a predominant plumage color, often enlivened by yellow, orange, or red. The ...

. It is the only species (

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 ...

) in the

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 ...

''Nesopsar''. The species has sometimes been included in the genus ''

Agelaius ''Agelaius'' is a genus of blackbirds in the New World family Icteridae. Established by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816, it contains five species: The name ''Agelaius'' comes from the Greek ', meaning "gregarious". Gallery File:Blackbird t ...

'', but molecular systematics have shown it not be closely related to any living

New World blackbird Icterids () or New World blackbirds make up a family, the Icteridae (), of small to medium-sized, often colorful, New World passerine birds. Most species have black as a predominant plumage color, often enlivened by yellow, orange, or red. The ...

grackle Grackles is the common name of any of 11 passerine birds (10 extant and one extinct) native to North and South America. They belong to various genera in the icterid family. In all the species with this name, adult males have black or mostly blac ...

.Johnson, Kevin & and Scott M. Lanyon (1999) "Molecular Systematics of the Grackles and Allies, and the Effect of Additional Sequence (Cyt B and ND2)." ''Auk'' 116 (3): 759-768 The species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, where it is restricted to

Cockpit Country Cockpit Country is an area in Trelawny and Saint Elizabeth, Saint James, Saint Ann, Manchester and the northern tip of Clarendon parishes in Jamaica. The land is marked by steep-sided hollows, as much as deep in places, which are separated ...

, some central areas and the

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

and

John Crow Mountains The John Crow Mountains are a range of mountains in Jamaica. They extend parallel with the northeast coast of the island, bounded to the west by the banks of the Rio Grande, and joining with the eastern end of the Blue Mountains in the southeast. ...

Description

The Jamaican blackbird is a small icterid with all black

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

(2008) Species factsheet
''Nesopsar nigerrimus''
Downloaded 2 July 2008 It has a short tail that is often flayed (see below).

Habitat

It is strictly arboreal and has a wheezing

call Call or Calls may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Call, a type of betting in poker * Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage Music and dance * Call (band), from Lahore, Paki ...

. Pairs occupy large

territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or an ...

in a variety of wet

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 ...

types, including

elfin Elfin may refer to: *ELFIN, a CubeSat developed by University of California, Los Angeles *Elfin (steamboat), a steamboat that ran on Lake Washington from 1891 to 1900 *Elfin of Alt Clut, ruler of Alt Clut, seventh century Scotland *Elfin, a charac ...

and mist forests, that have substantial

epiphytes An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

and mosses on the trees. The Jamaican blackbird's habitats are confined to areas of above 575m and are rarely seen in lowland areas.

Ecology

In the absence of specialised tree probers such as the

woodcreeper The woodcreepers (Dendrocolaptinae) comprise a subfamily of suboscine passerine birds endemic to the Neotropics. They have traditionally been considered a distinct family Dendrocolaptidae, but most authorities now place them as a subfamily of the ...

ovenbirds Ovenbirds or furnariids are a large family of small suboscine passerine birds found from Mexico and Central to southern South America. They form the family Furnariidae. This is a large family containing around 315 species and 70 genera. The oven ...

and

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. ...

s (Jamaica does have a species of woodpecker, the

Jamaican woodpecker The Jamaican woodpecker (''Melanerpes radiolatus'') is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is endemic to Jamaica. Taxonomy and systematics The Jamaican woodpecker has sometimes been placed in genus ''Ce ...

, but it is a generalist that typically feeds away from tree trunks), which occur in similar forests on the mainland, the Jamaican blackbird has

convergently evolved Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...

to fill this

ecological niche In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. Three variants of ecological niche are described by It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for ...

.Cruz, Alexander (1978) "Adaptive evolution in the Jamaican Blackbird ''Nesopsar nigerrimus''." ''Ornis Scandinavia'' 9: 130-137. Fro
abstract
"Nesopsar's feeding habit probably evolved on the island in the absence of species of Dendrocolaptidae and Furnariidae specialized for arboreal rummaging. Compared with other icterids, Nesopsar has shorter legs and more curved claws, which are advantageous in arboreal (trunk) foraging." The majority of the food taken by this species is found on the trunks of trees and their inner branches, feeding on animal prey, mostly insects, which it finds in bark or in

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

s. It has shorter legs and longer claws that typical icterids, uses its tail for support when climbing tree trunks, both of which are adaptations to its niche, and has a longer bill and stronger jaw

muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscl ...

s than other New World blackbirds used for probing, spreading and hammering. It utilises a different niche from the other (semi)

icterid, the

Jamaican oriole The Jamaican oriole (''Icterus leucopteryx'') is a species of bird in the family Icteridae. Distribution It is found in Jamaica and on the Colombian island of Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, San Andrés. The subspecie ...

, which forages mainly in the outer branches of the trees.

Conservation

The principal threat to the Jamaican blackbird is

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

. There are numerous threats to Jamaican forests, including

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...

mining,

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

production, forestry, farming and development. This species is particularly vulnerable because it is dependent on large trees which support many epiphytes. Because of these threats it is listed as

Endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

by the

IUCN 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 ...

. It is protected in the

Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park is a national park in Jamaica. The park covers 495.2 km2 and accounts for 4.5% of Jamaica's land surface. It gets its name from the Blue Mountains, the mountain range that runs through it, as well ...

, and efforts are underway to stop bauxite mining in Cockpit Country.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1584943

Jamaican blackbird The Jamaican blackbird (''Nesopsar nigerrimus'') is a species of bird in the New World blackbird and oriole family Icteridae. It is the only species (monotypic) in the genus ''Nesopsar''. The species has sometimes been included in the genus ''Ag ...

Birds of Jamaica Endemic birds of Jamaica

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot