From Opus

Photo by Charles Harper
Santa Cruz Island, California, September 2003

Alternative name: Santa Cruz Jay

Aphelocoma insularis

[edit] Identification

33cm. A smallish, crestless and long-tailed jay:

• Broad head
• Ultramarine-blue crown, nape, upperwing and tail
• White chin, throat and upper breast
• Blue collar below throat nearly complete
• Black face with thin white supercilium
• Dark brownish-grey upperparts with blue tinge
• Greyish lower breast and below
• Disprportionately large black bill
• Brown iris

Sexes similar. Juveniles are brownish-grey, immatures have edged brown greater primary coverts.

[edit] Similar Species

Distinguished from the mainland Western Scrub-Jay by its darker and more conspicuous blue uppersides, blue undertail coverts and long, heavy bill. Forty percent heavier than Western Scrub-jay, the closest relative in distance and probably also in ancestry. Voice is also distinctive

[edit] Distribution

Endemic to Santa Cruz Island in Channel Islands National Park, California.
The population is still healthy but the small range is a potential risk.

[edit] Taxonomy

Monotypic.
Formerly considered a subspecies of Scrub Jay A. coerulescens with Western Scrub-Jay and Florida Scrub-Jay.

[edit] Habitat

Open oak woodland.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

Includes acorns of the Island Oak (Quercus tomentella); acorns are hidden for winter food. During spring and summer it takes mainly invertebrates and small vertebrates, birds eggs and nestlings.

[edit] Breeding

Breeding season from May to June. Monogamous without helpers. The bulky nest is made of oak twigs and placed 2 - 3m above the ground in a bush or tree. Lays 2 - 5 eggs. Has a long incubation and nestling period.

[edit] Vocalizations

Distinctive metallic call is deeper than in Western Scrub-Jay

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, and D Christie, eds. 2009. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 14: Bush-shrikes to Old World Sparrows. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553507
3. Birdforum thread discussing the Scrub-jays

• List of references

[edit] External Links