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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AlexC" data-source="post: 802703" data-attributes="member: 27416">RFM, with no offense intended towards you or Guy, I'm quite certain your bird is not a Purplish-backed Jay for a few reasons.1) Your bird's legs are black (PBJs' are yellow), 2) your bird's eyes are black (PBJs' are yellow),3) your bird's bill - relative to body - is American Crow-size (not small as a PBJ's would be), 4) your bird has a glossy black-blue tone on its entire lower body - wings, tail, flanks, underside, etc. (PBJs have, first of all, not glossy, but blue/purple coloration, and this coloration is only on wings and parts of the tail (tail feathers, from available photos I could find, seem to be edged black (EDIT: my mistake - I was seeing the black undertail through ruffled tail-feathers), and flanks, underbelly, and undertail are a definite black)),5) your bird's tail is expected length of American Crow's in relation to its body (PBJs' tails are almost half their length!), and6) your bird is just too big. I don't have my Howell & Webb (Mexico bird book) with me right now to see measurements, but from all the photos I could find of PBJs online, they seem diminuitive and magpie-sized. Your bird is clearly a Corvus, not a Cyanocorax.Here are the only photos online I could find of PBJs, but I think they probably speak better than my rant:<a href="http://zettesworld.com/zooblog/030906SanBlasJay.jpg" target="_blank">http://zettesworld.com/zooblog/030906SanBlasJay.jpg</a><a href="http://www.hillcountryaviaries.com/images/purpilishbacked.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.hillcountryaviaries.com/images/purpilishbacked.jpg</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Purplish-backed_Jay.jpg" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Purplish-backed_Jay.jpg</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Purplish-backed_Jay_eating.jpg" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Purplish-backed_Jay_eating.jpg</a>Wanted to also offer up some photos from our gallery here at BirdForum as comparatively glossy-blue-looking American Crows. Given, most aren't as glossy as your bird, but hey, that's variation for ya!<a href="http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/100372/sort/1/cat/all/page/1" target="_blank">http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/100372/sort/1/cat/all/page/1</a><a href="http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/46222/sort/1/cat/all/page/2" target="_blank">http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/46222/sort/1/cat/all/page/2</a><a href="http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/43446/sort/1/cat/all/page/2" target="_blank">http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/43446/sort/1/cat/all/page/2</a><a href="http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/77285/sort/1/cat/all/page/1" target="_blank">http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/77285/sort/1/cat/all/page/1</a><a href="http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/68394/sort/1/cat/all/page/2" target="_blank">http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/68394/sort/1/cat/all/page/2</a><a href="http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/18098/sort/1/cat/all/page/2" target="_blank">http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/18098/sort/1/cat/all/page/2</a></blockquote>

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