Island Scrub-jay

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Island Scrub-jay

Conservation status

Near Threatened (IUCN)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Corvidae
Genus:	Aphelocoma
Species:	A. insularis

Binomial name

Aphelocoma insularis
Henshaw, 1886

The Island Scrub-jay (Aphelocoma insularis^[1]) or Island Jay is one of the species of Aphelocoma (scrub-jays) native to North America and is endemic to Santa Cruz Island off the coast of Southern California. It is closely related to the California Scrub-jay - the coastal Western Scrub-jays found on the adjacent mainland (Rice et al. 2003) - but differs in being larger, more brightly colored, and having a markedly stouter bill. The large bill size is related to its diet, incorporating the thick-shelled acorns of the Island Oak (Quercus tomentella).

Santa Cruz Island is run as a preserve, partly by The Nature Conservancy and partly by Channel Islands National Park. The Island Jay can often be seen right at Prisoner's Cove, where many of the boats visiting the Island drop off and pick up passengers. This species is plentiful; it is classed as near-threatened by the IUCN mainly to reflect that a disaster, disease, or invasive species could quickly kill off the thriving population as it is limited to a single island. The Island Scrub-jay is not known to have occurred anywhere else historically, and no fossil remains have been found on the well-researched neighboring islands (Curry & Delaney 2002).

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Aphelocoma insularis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is near threatened

Curry, Robert L. & Delaney, Kathleen Semple (2002): Island Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma insularis). In: Poole, A. & Gill, F. (eds.): The Birds of North America 713. Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA & American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. Online version, retrieved 2007-FEB-25. DOI:10.2173/bna.713 (requires subscription)

Goodwin, Derek & Gillmor, Robert (1986): Crows of the World (2nd ed). British Museum of Natural History. ISBN 0565009796

Madge, Steve & Burn, Hilary (1994): Crows and jays: a guide to the crows, jays and magpies of the world. A&C Black, London. ISBN 0-7136-3999-7

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

[edit] Footnotes

^ Etymology: Aphelocoma, from Latinized Ancient Greek aphelo-, "soft" (Ancient Greek: apalos, απαλός) + Latin coma "hair", in reference to the smooth plumage of birds of this genus compared to other corvids. insularis, Latin: "from an island".