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The Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica), also known as California Jay or Long-tailed Jay (and see below), is a species of scrub-jay native to western North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, ranging from southern Washington
Washington

Washington is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute....
 to central Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
 and central Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
. In recent years, it has expanded its range into the Puget Sound
Puget Sound

Puget Sound is an inland marine complex of waterways from the Pacific Ocean, connected to the rest of the Pacific by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, in the Pacific Northwest of the United States....
 region of Washington. The Santa Cruz or Island Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma insularis), found only on Santa Cruz Island
Santa Cruz Island

File:Santa Cruz Island.jpgSanta Cruz Island was the largest privately owned island off the continental United States, but is currently part-owned by the National Park service ....
, and the Florida Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens), a Florida
Florida

Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
n endemic, are its closest relatives.






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Encyclopedia


The Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica), also known as California Jay or Long-tailed Jay (and see below), is a species of scrub-jay native to western North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, ranging from southern Washington
Washington

Washington is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute....
 to central Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
 and central Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
. In recent years, it has expanded its range into the Puget Sound
Puget Sound

Puget Sound is an inland marine complex of waterways from the Pacific Ocean, connected to the rest of the Pacific by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, in the Pacific Northwest of the United States....
 region of Washington. The Santa Cruz or Island Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma insularis), found only on Santa Cruz Island
Santa Cruz Island

File:Santa Cruz Island.jpgSanta Cruz Island was the largest privately owned island off the continental United States, but is currently part-owned by the National Park service ....
, and the Florida Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens), a Florida
Florida

Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
n endemic, are its closest relatives. The Western Scrub-jay is nonmigratory and can be found in urban areas, where it can become tame and will come to bird feeders.

Description

The Western Scrub-Jay is a large songbird, about 27-31 cm (11.5 in) in length (including its tail), with a 39 cm (15 in) wingspan, and about 80g in weight. Coastal Pacific birds tend to be brighter in coloration than those of the interior, but all are patterned in blue, white and gray, though none as uniform in color as the related Mexican Jay
Mexican Jay

The Mexican Jay, Aphelocoma ultramarina, formerly known as the Gray-breasted Jay, is a New World jay native to the Sierra Madre Oriental, Sierra Madre Occidental, and Cordillera Neovolcanica of Mexico....
. In general, this species has a blue head, wings, and tail, a gray-brown back, and grayish underparts. The throat is whitish with a blue necklace. The call is described as "harsh and scratchy".

Habitat

True to their name, Western Scrub-Jays inhabit areas of low scrub, preferring pinyon-juniper
Juniper

Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the mountains of Central America....
 forests, oak
Oak

The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of about 400 species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus , which are listed in the List of Quercus species, and some related genera, notably Lithocarpus....
 woods and sometimes mesquite
Mesquite

Mesquite is a legume plant of the Prosopis genus found in Northern Mexico and the United States from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas up to southwestern Kansas and from southeastern California and southwestern Utah to the southern limits of the Sonoran desert....
 bosques. They also inhabit suburban gardens.

Behaviour


Foraging


Western Scrub-Jays usually forage in pairs, family groups or small non-kin groups, outside of the breeding season. They feed on small animals, such as frogs and lizards, eggs and young of other birds, insects, and (particularly in winter) grains, nuts and berries.

Food Storing

Western Scrub-Jays, like many other corvids, exploit ephemeral surpluses in food supply by storing food in scattered caches
Hoarding

Hoarding is a general term for the accumulation of food or other items. The term is used to describe both animal and human behavior....
 within their territories. In the process of collecting and storing this food, western scrub-jays have shown an ability to plan ahead in choosing cache sites to provide adequate food volume and variety for the future. Western scrub-jays are also able to rely on their accurate observational spatial memories
Memory

In psychology, memory is an organism's mental ability to store, retain and recall information. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of mnemonic....
 to steal food from caches made by conspecifics
Conspecificity

Conspecificity is a concept in biology. Two or more individual organisms, populations, or taxa are termed conspecific if they belong to the same species....
. To protect their caches from these potential 'pilferers', food storing birds implement a number of strategies to reduce this risk of theft. Western scrub-jays are also known for hoarding and burying brightly colored objects.

Nesting

Nests are built low in trees or bushes, 1m to 10m above the ground, primarily by the female while the male guards her efforts. The nests are sturdy, with an outside diameter of 33cm to 58cm, constructed on a platform of twigs with moss and dry grasses lined with fine roots and hair. Four to six eggs are laid from March through July with some regional variations. There are two common shell color variations: pale green background with irregular, olive-colored spots or markings, and pale grayish-white to green background with reddish-brown spots. The female incubates the eggs for about 16 days. The young leave the nest about 18 days after hatching.

Diseases

The Western Scrub-Jay is one of the species whose populations are being adversely affected by the West Nile Virus
West Nile virus

West Nile virus is a virus of the family Flaviviridae. Part of the Japanese encephalitis antigenic complex of viruses, it is found in both tropics and temperate regions....
, particularly in California's Central Valley
California Central Valley

The Central Valley is a large, flat valley that dominates the central portion of the U.S. state of California, United States. It is home to many of California's most productive agricultural efforts....
.

Systematics

The Western, Santa Cruz, and Florida Scrub-jays were once considered subspecies
Subspecies

In biology, subspecies is the taxonomic rank immediately subordinate to a species. A subspecies is a taxonomic group which is less distinct than the Common descent or species from which it originates....
 of a single species termed the "Scrub Jay". However, they are now known to be well distinct (Emslie 1996,Curry et al. 2002, Rice et al. 2003). Beyond the close relationship of the "California" and Island Scrub-jays, resolution of their evolution
Evolution

In biology, evolution is change in the heritability trait of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. These changes are caused by a combination of three main processes: variation, reproduction, and selection....
ary history has proven very difficult.

Judging from mtDNA NADH dehydrogenase
NADH dehydrogenase

NADH dehydrogenase is an enzyme located in the inner mitochondria membrane that catalyzes the transfer of electrons from NADH to coenzyme Q ....
 subunit 2 sequence
DNA sequence

A DNA sequence or genetic sequence is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, with the capacity to carry information as described by the central dogma of molecular biology....
 data, it appears as if there are 2 clade
Clade

A clade is a term used in modern alpha taxonomy, the scientific classification of living and fossil organisms, to describe a monophyletic group, defined as a group consisting of a single common ancestor and all its descendants.The term "monophyletic group" is used in this article in the conventional sense of "an a...
s, namely a Pacific one west and another one east of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,800 kilometre from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States....
; the relationships of populations in the latter are not resolvable to satisfaction though (Rice et al. 2003). Thus, it is fairly likely that the Western Scrub-jay is actually another two distinct species, one belonging to the Pacific and another one to the eastern lineage(s); the latter's ancestors apparently gave rise to the Florida Scrub-jay too. Paleogeography of the Rocky Mountains range supports this scenario.

Inland birds (Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay, woodhouseii group) differ in plumage (paler blue above, and with an indistinct and usually incomplete breast band) from the coastal birds (California Scrub-Jay, californica group; darker blue above, and with a strongly defined - but not necessarily complete - blue breast band). They also differ in ecology
Ecology

Ecology is the science study of the distribution and Abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their nature environment ....
 and behavior; the beaks of the Pacific group are usually strong and hooked at the tip as they feed on acorns, whereas the pinyon-nut feeding inland group has a longer, slimmer and straighter bill with little or no hook (Curry et al. 2002).

Each group contains a number of subspecies
Subspecies

In biology, subspecies is the taxonomic rank immediately subordinate to a species. A subspecies is a taxonomic group which is less distinct than the Common descent or species from which it originates....
. In the woodhouseii group, the quite pale but distinctly patterned southernmost subspecies sumichrasti and remota ("Sumichrast's Scrub-Jay") stand apart; its remaining races are generally not quite as pale but have washed-out colors with indistincly marked borders. Although these were considered to constitute well-marked groups, the molecular data of Rice et al. (2003) was unable to distinguish woodhouseii and sumichrasti. Thus, these differences seem to reflect patterns independent of phylogeny such as adaptations to local conditions, or perhaps character displacement
Character displacement

Character displacement refers to the phenomenon where differences among similar species whose distributions overlap geographically are accentuated in regions where the species co-occur but are minimized or lost where the species? distributions do not overlap....
 with the Mexican Jay
Mexican Jay

The Mexican Jay, Aphelocoma ultramarina, formerly known as the Gray-breasted Jay, is a New World jay native to the Sierra Madre Oriental, Sierra Madre Occidental, and Cordillera Neovolcanica of Mexico....
 which is more similar to the northern inland than to the southernmost taxa; its range overlaps with the latter but not the former. Certainly, some gene flow
Gene flow

In population genetics, gene flow is the transfer of alleles of genes from one population to another.Migration into or out of a population may be responsible for a marked change in allele frequencies ....
 between these populations occurs, but while the hybrid zone between the californica and woodhouseii groups is very limited, the geographically isolated southern populations seem genetically far less distinct (Curry et al. 2002, Rice et al. 2003).

Following Curry et al. (2002), the subspecies are:

California Scrub-Jay, Aphelocoma (californica) californica

Western Scrub Jay Holding An Acorn At Waterfront Park in Portland, Or
* Aphelocoma californica immanis Grinnell, 1901 - Interior Scrub-Jay
From Puget Sound
Puget Sound

Puget Sound is an inland marine complex of waterways from the Pacific Ocean, connected to the rest of the Pacific by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, in the Pacific Northwest of the United States....
 through the Willamette Valley
Willamette Valley

The Willamette Valley is the region in northwest Oregon in the United States that surrounds the Willamette River as it proceeds northward from its emergence from mountains near Eugene, Oregon to its confluence with the Columbia River at Portland, Oregon....
 to Douglas County, Oregon
Douglas County, Oregon

Douglas County is a List of counties in Oregon located in the U.S. state of Oregon. In 2000, its population was 100,399. Oregon Geographic Names after Stephen A....
A large subspecies. Somewhat duller and lighter in color than californica due to gene flow from inland populations. Blue of head and neck less purplish than in woodhouseii group. Back usually quite brownish, underside and especially breast quite whitish, undertail coverts usually tinged pale blue or gray in males. Bill strong, wings and tail fairly short.


  • Aphelocoma californica caurina Pitelka, 1951
Coastal SW Oregon from Rogue River
Rogue River (Oregon)

The Rogue River in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Oregon flows from the Cascade Range to the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the original eight rivers included in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968, which included of the Rogue, from west of Grants Pass to east of Gold Beach, Oregon....
 valley south to Napa and Sonoma Counties; eastern limit the inner California Coast Ranges.
Similar to californica, but head and back more intensely colored, with bright purplish tinge to blue of head. Color similar to nominate , thus darker than immanis and most oocleptica. Relative to nominate californica, blue areas more purplish and brighter, breast darker than rest of underside.


  • Aphelocoma californica oocleptica Swarth, 1918 - Nicasio Scrub-Jay. Includes A. c. superciliosa
From Jackson
Jackson County, Oregon

Jackson County is a List of counties in Oregon located in the U.S. state of Oregon. In 2007, its population was 202,310. The county Oregon Geographic Names for Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States....
, Klamath, and Lake Counties
Lake County, Oregon

Lake County is a county located in the high desert south central region of U.S. state of Oregon. It is named for the lakes found within its boundaries, including Lake Abert, Hart Lake Reservoir, and Goose Lake ....
, Oregon, through Sacramento
Sacramento Valley

The Sacramento Valley is the portion of the California Central Valley that lies to the north of the Sacramento Delta in the U.S. state of California....
 and San Joaquin Valley
San Joaquin Valley

The San Joaquin Valley refers to the area of the California Central Valley of California that lies south of the Sacramento River Delta in Stockton, California....
s and surrounding mountains to Kern County, San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean....
 area, and Alpine County. Eastwards to Inyo County and Virginia Mountains
Virginia Mountains

The Virginia Mountains comprise an irregular mountain range located in western Nevada in the United States. They are entirely in Washoe County, Nevada....
 (Washoe County
Washoe County

Washoe County may refer to:Places*Washoe County, NevadaShips*USS LST-1165, a United States Navy landing ship tank commissioned in 1953 and renamed USS Washoe County in 1955...
, Nevada
Nevada

Nevada is a U.S. state located in the Western United States of the United States of America. The capital is Carson City and the largest city is Las Vegas, Nevada....
), where it intergrades with nevadae of the woodhouseii group.
Quite variable according to the extent of gene flow between this taxon and nevadae. Generally similar to californica but larger; color of head and neck varies in lightness and amount of purplish hue. Back grayish; undertail coverts usually white. Bill usually heavy but variable according to habitat type (less heavy in birds of pinyon woodland).


  • Aphelocoma californica californica (Vigors, 1839)
California Coast Ranges from San Mateo County and SE Alameda County to SW Ventura County.
Blue of head usually strongly tinged purple. Back bluish-brownish gray, bluer towards the rump. Incomplete bluish-violet breast band. Underside greyish white, darker on the breast. Undertail coverts white tinged with blue. Thighs gray. Rectrices and remiges dark blue, the larger feathers duller. Bill heavy, tip strongly hooked.


  • Aphelocoma californica obscura Anthony, 1889 - Belding's Scrub-Jay
Coastal SW California, east to Little San Bernardino Mountains
Little San Bernardino Mountains

The Little San Bernardino Mountains are short Peninsular Ranges mountain range in southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately 40 mi southeast from the San Bernardino Mountains through San Bernardino County, California and Riverside County, California counties to the northeast edge of the Salton Sea....
, some isolated mountain ranges in W Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert

The Mojave Desert , , locally referred to as the High Desert, occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, and northwestern Arizona, in the United States....
, and Whale Peak (San Diego County). Southwards through N Baja California
Baja California

Baja California is the northernmost States of Mexico of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North Territory of Baja California....
, Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
 (Sierra de Juárez
Sierra de Juárez

Sierra de Ju?rez is a mountain range in the state of Baja California at . This is a launch site for suborbital rockets in MexicoThis is where the Rio Tijuana river surfaces....
, Sierra San Pedro Mártir
Sierra San Pedro Mártir

The Sierra San Pedro M?rtir is a mountain chain that runs north-south along the middle part of the northwestern Mexico Mexican state of Baja California, with its name Spanish for "mountains of Saint Peter the Martyr"....
) to Todos Santos Bay
Smaller and darker than californica, with more intense purplish and brown coloration on head and back, respectively; prominent gray streaking on throat and distinct breast collar. Belly with smoky gray wash, lighter in the middle. Generally more intense coloration overall. Bill heavy.


  • Aphelocoma californica cana Pitelka, 1951 - Eagle Mountain Scrub-Jay
Only occurs in Single-leaf Pinyon
Single-leaf Pinyon

The Single-leaf Pinyon is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to the United States and northwest Mexico. The range is in southernmost Idaho, western Utah, Arizona, southwest New Mexico, Nevada, eastern and southern California and northern Baja California....
 woods on Eagle Mountain
Eagle Mountain, California

Eagle Mountain, California is a modern day ghost town in Riverside County, California founded in 1948 by iron magnate Henry J. Kaiser. The town is located at the entrance of the now-defunct Eagle Mountain iron mine, once owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad, then Kaiser Steel, and located on the southeastern corner of Joshua Tree National...
, Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park

File:JoshuatreeNP.jpgJoshua Tree National Park is located in southeastern California. Declared a U.S. National Park in 1994, it had previously been a U.S....
.
Smaller, lighter and grayer than californica. Bill not as heavy. Apparently an isolate of hybrid origin between A. c. obscura and nevadae of the woodhouseii group.


Western Scrub Jay At Tree Top
* Aphelocoma californica hypoleuca Ridgway, 1887 - Xantus' Scrub-Jay. Includes A. c. cactophila
Arid
Arid

A region is said to be arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or even preventing the Individual growth and Morphogenesis of plant and animal life....
 regions of central and southern Baja California south of a line through Bahía Magdalena, Sierra de Calamajué, and Loreto, Baja California Sur
Loreto, Baja California Sur

Loreto was the first Spanish colonization of the Americas settlement on the Baja California Peninsula. It served as the capital of Las Californias from 1697 to 1777, and is the current seat of the Loreto in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur....
Smaller and somewhat lighter than californica with less purplish hue to blue of head. Underside, including blue on breast, very light. Some have blue or gray tinge to undertail coverts. Bill proportionally longest in californica group.


Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay, Aphelocoma (californica) woodhouseii

  • Aphelocoma californica/woodhouseii nevadae Pitelka, 1945a - Nevada Scrub-Jay
Great Basin
Great Basin

The Great Basin is a large, arid region of the western United States. Its boundaries depend on how it is defined. Its most common definition is the contiguous drainage basin, roughly between the Wasatch Mountains, in Utah and the Sierra Nevada , that has no natural outlet to the sea....
 from N Nevada southwards, some isolated mountain ranges in Death Valley
Death Valley

Death Valley is a desert located in the southwestern United States. It is the lowest, driest, and hottest location in North America. Badwater, a depression located within Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 85.5 meter below sea level....
 and Mojave Desert from E California to the SW of New Mexico
New Mexico

New Mexico is a U. S. State located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. Inhabited by Native Americans in the United States populations for many centuries, it has also has been part of the Spanish Empire viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S....
, south to NE Sonora
Sonora

Sonora is one of the 31 States of Mexico and is located in the northwest of the country....
 and extreme NW Chihuahua. Some hybridization with A. c. oocleptica (californica group) at the north-western edge of its range.
Lighter and duller than woodhouseii; light blue undertail coverts. Bill longish, quite pointed, and tapering, not hooked at tip.


  • Aphelocoma californica/woodhouseii woodhouseii (Baird, 1858)
Rocky Mountains foothills, from N Utah
Utah

The State of Utah is a western United States U.S. state of the United States. It was the List of U.S. states by date of statehood admitted to the United States on January 4, 1896....
/S Wyoming
Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
 south through NW Chihuahua and W Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
, sometimes ranging farther into that State.
Blue of neck with dull grayish hue; back grayish brown. Undertail coverts blue. Bill heavy but straight, hardly hooked at tip.


  • Aphelocoma californica/woodhouseii texana Ridgway, 1902 - Texas Scrub-Jay
Hitherto only known from Edwards Plateau
Edwards Plateau

The Edwards Plateau is a region of west-central Texas which is bounded by the Balcones Fault to the south and east, the Llano Uplift and the Great Plains region to the north, and the Pecos River and Chihuahuan Desert to the west....
 (Texas); area and extent of possible contact with woodhouseii undetermined. Possibly this subspecies at Caprock Escarpment
Caprock Escarpment

The Caprock Escarpment is a geographical transition point in Texas between the High Plains /Llano Estacado to the west and the North Central Plains to the east....
, where species settled in the 1950s.
Darker than woodhouseii with hint of breast collar. Lower breast with brownish hue, large white patch on lower belly. Undertail coverts white; in adult males usually with some blue feather tips. Back quite brown. Young birds conspicuously paler than in woodhouseii. Heavy, fairly blunt bill.


  • Aphelocoma californica/woodhouseii grisea Nelson, 1899
Sierra Madre Occidental
Sierra Madre Occidental

The Sierra Madre Occidental is a mountain range in western Mexico and the extreme southwest of the United States, extending 1500 km from southeast Arizona southeast through eastern Sonora, western Chihuahua , Durango , Zacatecas, Aguascalientes to Guanajuato , where it joins with the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Eje Volc?nico Transversal...
, primarily in Chihuahua; intergrading with nevadae at NW of range.
Lighter and larger than woodhouseii, with a hint of a blue collar. Undertail coverts white. Long wings and fairly short, heavy bill.


  • Aphelocoma californica/woodhouseii cyanotis Ridgway, 1887 - Blue-eared Scrub-Jay
Lower Sierra Madre Oriental
Sierra Madre Oriental

The Sierra Madre Oriental is a mountain range in northeastern Mexico, spanning 1000 km from Coahuila south through Nuevo Le?n, southwest Tamaulipas, San Luis Potos?, Quer?taro, and Hidalgo to northern Puebla, where it joins with the east-west running Eje Volc?nico Transversal of central Mexico....
, Mexico, from S Coahuila
Coahuila

Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of Mexico's 31 component States of Mexico. It is located in the north of the country.To the north, Coahuila accounts for a stretch of the U.S....
 to Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala

Tlaxcala is one of the 31 mexican states of Mexico, located to the east of Mexico City....
; generally separated from texana woodhouseii; range adjacent to grisea in S Chihuahuan Desert
Chihuahuan Desert

The Chihuahuan Desert is a desert that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. On the United States side it occupies the valleys and basins of central and southern New Mexico, Texas west of the Pecos River and southeastern Arizona; south of the border, it covers the northern half of the Mexico Mexican state of Chihuahua , most of Coahuila, north-e...
. Apparently replaced by Mexican Jay
Mexican Jay

The Mexican Jay, Aphelocoma ultramarina, formerly known as the Gray-breasted Jay, is a New World jay native to the Sierra Madre Oriental, Sierra Madre Occidental, and Cordillera Neovolcanica of Mexico....
 at higher-altitude woodland towards S of range.
Larger and duller than woodhouseii. Back brown with blue tinge, sometimes quite bluish. Supercilium
Supercilium

The term supercilium is a name for a plumage feature present on the heads of many bird species. It is a stripe which starts above the bird's loral area, continuing above the eye, and finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head....
 faint and small. Underside qhite light; lower belly white. Undertail coverts dull white. Bill and wings as in grisea, young birds browner than texana.


  • Aphelocoma californica/woodhouseii sumichrasti (Baird and Ridgway, 1874) - Sumichrast's Scrub-Jay
From Distrito Federal southeastwards through Veracruz
Veracruz

Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave is one of the 31 states of Mexico that constitute the republic of Mexico....
, Puebla
Puebla

Puebla is a Political divisions of Mexico located in the center east of the country, to the east of Mexico City.The state of Puebla borders the states of Veracruz to the east, Hidalgo , Mexico State, Tlaxcala, and Morelos to the west, and Guerrero and Oaxaca to the south....
, and Oaxaca
Oaxaca

The Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca }} is one of the 31 Mexican state of Mexico, located in the southern part of the country, west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec....
.
Bright blue head color, with blackish ear patches. Faint white supercilium. Back grayish-brown, blue towards the tail. Light gray streaks on throat; traces of a faint grayish or grayish-blue breast collar. Thighs smoky gray. Remiges and rectrices dark dull blue. Large, with very long wings. Heavy, slightly hooked bill.


  • Aphelocoma californica/woodhouseii remota Griscom, 1934 - Chilpancingo Scrub-Jay
SW Oaxaca and central Guerrero
Guerrero

The State of Guerrero is a state in the southern meridional region of Mexico. With an area of , it occupies about 3.3% of Mexican territory. It borders the Pacific Ocean to the south , Michoac?n to the west , Oaxaca to the east , and Mexico State , Morelos , and Puebla to the north ....
. Apparently separated from sumichrasti by Rio Balsas valley.
Duller and lighter than sumichrasti. Largest of all Western Scrub-jays.


Further reading


  • Madge, Steve & Burn, Hilary (1994): Crows and jays: a guide to the crows, jays and magpies of the world. A&C Black, London. ISBN 0-7136-3999-7


Footnotes


Etymology
Etymology

Etymology is the study of the roots and history of words; and how their form and meaning have changed over time.In languages with a long detailed history, etymology makes use of philology, the study of how words change from culture to culture over time....
: Aphelocoma, from Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
ized Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 aphelo-, "soft" (Ancient Greek: apalos, apa???) + Latin coma "hair", in reference to the smooth plumage of birds of this genus compared to other corvids. californica, Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
: "from California".


External links

  • Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
    Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

    The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is an institute whose mission is ?To interpret and conserve the earth?s biological diversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds.? The lab is associated with Cornell University and has several faculty on site as well as nonfaculty directors, students, and a large staff of scientist...
    : . Includes a sample of its call. Retrieved 2007-FEB-25.


  • University of Cambridge Comparative Psychology of Learning and Cognition Lab: - article on studies of the cognitive abilities of western scrub-jays. Retrieved 2007-FEB-25.


  • USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter: . Retrieved 2007-FEB-25.