The unicolored jay (Aphelocoma unicolor)[2] is an Aphelocoma jay native to cloud forests of northwestern Central America and southern and southeastern Mexico, from central Honduras west to central Guerrero, southern Veracruz and extreme southern San Luis Potosí. It is apparently a basal member of its genus (Rice et al. 2003). At Montebello, Chiapas, it is a cooperative breeder (Webber and Brown 1994), and is not known to perform mating dances.[3]

Unicolored jay
In Oaxaca, Mexico
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
Genus: Aphelocoma
Species:
A. unicolor
Binomial name
Aphelocoma unicolor

Subspecies[4]

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  • A. u. guerrerensis has an especially large bill and long tail. Its feathers are bluish-purple.
  • A. u. concolor has pale blue plumage.
  • A. u.oaxacae has dark blue plumage. Its wing, tail and tarsus are relatively short.
  • A. u. unicolor
  • A. u. griscomi

References

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  • Rice, Nathan H.; Martínez-Meyer, Enrique & Peterson, A. Townsend (2003): Ecological niche differentiation in the Aphelocoma jays: a phylogenetic perspective. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 80(3): 369–383. doi:10.1046/j.1095-8312.2003.00242.x PDF fulltext
  • Webber, T., and Jerram L. Brown. 1994. Natural History of the Unicolored Jay in Chiapas, Mexico. Proceedings of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology 5(2):135-160.
  • Webber, T., and Nancy G. Stotz. 2019. Vocalizations of Unicolored Jays (Aphelocoma unicolor) at Montebello, Chiapas, Mexico. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 57 (1): 1-75.

Footnotes

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  1. ^ BirdLife International (2020). "Aphelocoma unicolor". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T22705642A137731554. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22705642A137731554.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ Etymology: Aphelocoma, from Latinized Ancient Greek apheles- (from ἀφελής-) "simple" + Latin coma (from Greek kome κόμη) "hair", in reference to the lack of striped or banded feathers in this genus, compared to other jays. unicolor, Latin for "unicolored".
  3. ^ Cheek, Rebecca G.; Harris, Michelle L.; Kennedy, Anna (2019-06-12). "First Documented Observation of Island Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma insularis) Precopulatory Display". Western North American Naturalist. 79 (2): 275. doi:10.3398/064.079.0213. ISSN 1527-0904.
  4. ^ Venkatraman, Madhvi X; Deraad, Devon A; Tsai, Whitney L E; Zarza, Eugenia; Zellmer, Amanda J; Maley, James M; Mccormack, John E (2018-11-25). "Cloudy with a chance of speciation: integrative taxonomy reveals extraordinary divergence within a Mesoamerican cloud forest bird". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 126 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1093/biolinnean/bly156. ISSN 0024-4066.
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