Curl-crested Jay

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Curl-crested Jay

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Corvidae
Genus:	Cyanocorax
Species:	C. cristatellus

Binomial name

Cyanocorax cristatellus
Temminck, 1823

The Curl-crested Jay (Cyanocorax cristatellus) is a South American jay, a beautiful and large (35cm) bird with predominantly dark blue back, almost black head and neck, and snow white chest and underparts. The male has a pronounced curled crest rising from just behind his beak.

Curl-crested Jays are native to the cerrados of central and southern, and the caatinga of northeastern Brazil. They can also be found in extreme northern Paraguay. They are at present expanding their range.

The bird is a generalist, eating almost anything, including eggs and nestlings of other birds, insects, arthropods, and small vertebrates like geckos. It also likes palm nuts and is particularly fond of the fruit of the Inga laurina (ice cream bean) and Schefflera actinophylla (Umbrella tree) (personal observations).

They live in groups of from 6 to 12 individuals, moving from food source to food source during the day. They always leave a lookout nearby to keep watch for predators.

The voice is a loud, gray, graa, gray-gray-gray, sometimes repeated 8–10 times (Helmut Sick). They are often mistaken for crows because their calls are similar.

[edit] Range in southeast Amazon Basin

In the southeast Amazon Basin, Curl-crested Jay ranges into the upstream headwater regions adjacent to the northwestern Cerrado. In the west, the extreme headwaters of the west-flowing Guapore River on the Brazil-Bolivia are home. For the southeast Amazon, the north-flowing rivers that limit the range are the Tapajós on the west, the Xingu River, then the adjacent drainage to the east, the Araguaia-Tocantins River system. The range continues easterly and southerly through the cerrado. The range on the river systems is only the upstream half of the drainages.

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Cyanocorax cristatellus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 03 December 2006.
Lorenzi H. and de Souza, H.M. 2001. Plantas Ornamentais no Brasil. Nova Odessa-SP-Brazil, Instituto Plantarum.
Lorenzi, H. 2002. Arvores Brasileiras: Manual de Identificação.... Nova Odessa-SP-Brazil, Instituto Plantarum
Ridgely, R. and Tudor, G. 1989. The Birds of South America, Volume I. Austin, University of Texas Press.
Sick, H. and Belton, W. (Translator) 1993. Birds in Brazil. Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Sigrist, T. and Quirino, M.T. (Translator) 2006. Birds of Brazil, an Artistic View. São Paulo.