Lidth's jay (''Garrulus lidthi'') or the Amami jay, is a

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

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 ...

, native to Japan. Measuring up to in total length,Amami jay (''Garrulus lidthi'')
. arkive.org it is slightly larger than its close relative the

Eurasian jay The Eurasian jay (''Garrulus glandarius'') is a species of passerine bird in the crow family Corvidae. It has pinkish brown plumage with a black stripe on each side of a whitish throat, a bright blue panel on the upper wing and a black tail. The ...

, with a proportionately stouter bill and also a longer tail. It has no discernible crest, with the head

feather Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and a premier ...

s a velvety black, the shoulders and back a deep purplish blue and all other parts a rich chestnut purple. 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 ...

has a very restricted distribution occurring only on the southern

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese islands of

Amami Ōshima , also known as Amami, is the largest island in the Amami archipelago between Kyūshū and Okinawa. It is one of the Satsunan Islands. The island, 712.35 km2 in area, has a population of approximately 73,000 people. Administratively it is ...

and

Tokunoshima , also known in English as is an island in the Amami archipelago of the southern Satsunan Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, in area, has a population of approximately 27,000. The island is divided into three administrative ...

in pine forest, sub-tropical woodland and cultivated areas especially around villages. Food is largely made up of the

nut Nut often refers to: * Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, or a collective noun for dry and edible fruits or seeds * Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt Nut or Nuts may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Co ...

s of the native chinkapin ''

Castanopsis cuspidata ''Castanopsis cuspidata'' (Japanese chinquapin; Japanese tsuburajii, 円椎) is a species of ''Castanopsis'' native to southern Japan and southern Korea. It is a medium-sized evergreen tree growing to 20–30 m tall, related to beech and oak. ...

'' but includes small

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s and

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 of many types. The bird nests in large cavities in trees but otherwise the nest is the same as that of the other two ''Garrulus'' species with 3–4

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s. The voice is similar to that of the

. The species was threatened in the past by hunting for its

s, which were used for decorating ladies' hats. Today it is threatened by introduced

small Indian mongoose The small Indian mongoose (''Urva auropunctata'') is a mongoose species native to Iraq and northern South Asia; it has also been introduced to many regions of the world, such as several Caribbean and Pacific islands. Taxonomy ''Mangusta auropu ...

s, which were brought to its range to control the venomous Okinawa pit viper. The species is fully protected under Japanese law and is increasing in numbers thanks to control of the mongooses. The species name commemorates the Dutch zoologist

Theodoor Gerard van Lidth de Jeude Theodoor Gerard van Lidth de Jeude (8 July 1788 in Tiel – 23 December 1863 in Utrecht) was a Dutch physician, veterinarian, and zoologist and was the first director of the newly established Rijks Veterinary College where Veterinary medicine was ...

. In 1965 it was chosen as the symbolic bird of

Kagoshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,599,779 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 9,187 km2 (3,547 sq mi). Kagoshima Prefecture borders Kumamoto P ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q715227

Lidth's jay Lidth's jay (''Garrulus lidthi'') or the Amami jay, is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae, native to Japan. Measuring up to in total length,Endemic birds of Japan Birds of the Ryukyu Islands

Lidth's jay Lidth's jay (''Garrulus lidthi'') or the Amami jay, is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae, native to Japan. Measuring up to in total length,Natural monuments of Japan Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte