| Island Scrub-Jay | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| 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) 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 population of Western Scrub-Jay found on the adjacent mainland (Rice et al. 2003 [2]) - 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). They will bury, or cache, the acorns in the fall and may eat them months later. They also eat insects, spiders, snakes, lizards, mice and other birds' eggs and nestlings.
Santa Cruz Island is run as a preserve, partly by The Nature Conservancy and partly by Channel Islands National Park. The Island Scrub-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 [3]).
Females lay 3 to 5 eggs. Incubation lasts approximately 20 days. These jays are monogamous and, unlike some other jays, are not cooperative breeders. Both sexes build a nest 3 to 25 feet high.
The Island Scrub-Jay's genus name, Aphelocoma, comes from the 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. The species name, insularis, comes from the Latin for "from an island".