The Mongolian ground jay (''Podoces hendersoni'') or Henderson's ground jay, 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 ...

Description

The bird is light tan with iridescent blue on its primary feathers. It has a long, curved beak and a black stripe on its forehead.

Distribution

It is found in arid areas of Central Asia (

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

, northern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and adjacent areas of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

Behaviour

Females spend more time foraging and the males spend more time brooding the chicks at the start of the nesting period. The main diet of the nestling Mongolian ground jay consists of common lizards, toad-headed agama, and invertebrates. It is proposed that Mongolian ground jays feed their chicks based on the availability of their food rather than in relation to the stage of the chicks development.

References

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Image

Mongolian ground jay The Mongolian ground jay (''Podoces hendersoni'') or Henderson's ground jay, is a species of bird in the family Corvidae. Description The bird is light tan with iridescent blue on its primary feathers. It has a long, curved beak and a black stri ...

Birds of North China Birds of Mongolia

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Corvidae-stub