Green jay - Cyanocorax yncas

[OldGreenVulture]

BASIC DESCRIPTION
A brilliant green, yellow, and blue jay of the tropics whose range barely stretches to southern Texas, the Green Jay is a noisy, colorful delight. The birds travel in conspicuous family flocks through brushlands and forests, seeking insects, small vertebrates, and fruit to eat. Like other jays and crows, this species is an incredibly versatile forager equally comfortable at picking, gleaning, pouncing, and even flycatching. During the breeding season, from April through June, these garrulous birds settle down and become a bit quieter.

Cool Facts
1)Green Jays use sticks to pry up loose bark, exposing insect prey. They are among the few North American bird species known to use tools.
Green Jays, like the more familiar Blue Jays, are excellent mimics. In Texas, they may imitate the call of various hawks to frighten away other bird species (such as Plain Chachalacas) from food they want to eat.
2)The Central American and South American populations of the Green Jay are separated by 900 mi. The two different groups differ in color, calls, and habitat use, and they may be different species. The South American Green Jays are larger and have a crest in front of their eyes.
3)A Texas Green Jay flock consists of a breeding pair, the current year's nestlings, and 1-year-old, nonbreeding jays from the previous year's nest. The 1-year-olds defend the territory, which aids the parents, but they are ejected from the family flock soon after the current year's nestlings have fledged.
4)In Colombia, the Green Jay retains offspring for several years, and those young help the parents raise more chicks.
The oldest recorded Green Jay was at least 11 years, 7 months old, and lived in Texas.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Green_Jay/overview

[OldGreenVulture]

Green Jay - Cyanocorax luxuosus



Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
Genus: Cyanocorax
Species: Cyanocorax luxuosus (Lesson R, 1839)

The green jay (Cyanocorax luxuosus) is a bird species of the New World jays, and is found in Central America. Adults are about 27 cm (11 in) long and variable in colour across their range; they usually have blue and black heads, green wings and mantle, bluish-green tails, black bills, yellow or brown eye rings, and dark legs. The basic diet consists of arthropods, vertebrates, seeds, and fruit. The nest is usually built in a thorny bush; the female incubates the clutch of three to five eggs. This is a common species of jay with a wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".

Taxonomy
Some ornithologists treat the green jay as conspecific with the Inca jay of the Andes with C. yncas luxuosus as the green jay and C. yncas yncas as the Inca jay.

Description
Green jays are 25–29 cm (9.8–11.4 in) in length. Weight ranges from 66 to 110 grams (2.3 to 3.9 oz). They have feathers of yellowish-white with blue tips on the top of the head, cheeks and nape, though some taxa have more blue than others. The breast and underparts range from bright yellow in the south to pale green in the north (e.g., Texas). The upper parts are rich green. It has large nasal bristles that form a distinct tuft in some subspecies, but are less developed in others. The color of the iris ranges from dark brownish to bright yellow depending on the subspecies.

Behavior
Green jays feed on a wide range of insects and other invertebrates and various cereal grains. They take ebony (Ebenopsis spp.) seeds where these occur, and also any oak species' acorns, which they will cache. Meat and human scraps add to the diet when opportunity arises. Green jays have been observed using sticks as tools to extract insects from tree bark.

Breeding
Green jays usually build a nest in a tree or in a thorny bush or thicket, and the female lays three to five eggs. Only the female incubates, but both parents take care of the young.

Voice
As with most of the typical jays, this species has a very extensive voice repertoire. The bird's most common call makes a rassh-rassh-rassh sound, but many other unusual notes also occur. One of the most distinctive calls sounds like an alarm bell.

Distribution and habitat
The green jay occurs from southern Texas to Honduras. The similar Inca jay a has disjunct home range in the northern Andes of South America.

Status
The green jay is a common species throughout most of its wide range. It is an adaptable species and the population is thought to be increasing as clearing of forests is creating new areas of suitable habitat. No particular threats have been identified, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".

Credited to Taipan for helping me edit the profile on Carnivora.