Tim Allwood said:
Tibetan (bottanensis) is a large, short-tailed and long-winged, very dark sub species. It's often considered a full species but in Dutch Birding 25:2 Ebbels stated that the case for specific status was rather weak
it's on my list though!
Not sure there has been any talk of any splitting of the various races of Picapica.
There are 13 races, with 9 of them forming intergrades where races meet.
4 races are isolated including the now split HUDSONIA. The other three are as follows:
One of the more distinctive isolated races is ASIRENSIS from SW Arabia which has a black rump, very little green in the tail or blue in the coverts and little white on the primaries. No recorded differences in vocalization.
Another is MAURETANICA from N Africa, which is also a little different in having a blue bare eye patch and a black rump ad is also vey short-winged and has darker tail. However some of the Iberian race MELANOTOS retain the bare blue skin around the eye. Vcalizations MAURETANICA are a little different, being higher-pitched and more varied.
These two are much smaller than the nominate race.
Finally CAMTSCHATICA from NE Siberia has more white in the wings, so it has white on the primaries even when they are closed, and more greenish gloss to coverts. The gloss is greater than in the nearest relatives in Amurland.
Wouldn't even want to touch Eurasian Jay with 33 recognized subspecies! However, their vocalizations seem to be pretty similar across the whole range.
