The beautiful jay (''Cyanolyca pulchra'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the crow and jay family

Corvidae Corvidae is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan Family (biology), family of Songbird, oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, Rook (bird), rooks, magpies, jackdaws, jays, treepies, choughs, and Nutcracker (bird), nutcrackers ...

. It is closely related to the azure-hooded jay, and the two species are considered sister species. The species is monotypic, having no

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

. The specific name for the beautiful jay, ''pulchra'', is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "beautiful".dos Anjos, L. & de Juana, E. (2017). Beautiful Jay (''Cyanolyca pulchra''). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/60702 on 10 March 2017). It is found in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, where its habitat includes humid montane forest and cloud forest. It can also be found around clearings and in secondary forest, but it is less common there. It often associates with watercourses and marshy areas within the forests. It ranges between above sea-level, but is most common between . The beautiful jay is long and in the male predominantly cyan-blue, becoming sky-blue almost to white from the neck to the forehead,. It has a black mask on the face meeting up with the dark -grey across the breast. The legs and bill are black. The female resembles the male but the upperparts have a brownish tinge, and juvenile birds have more brown on the plumage and are duller. It makes a range of calls, including a repeated "chew=chew-chew", clicks and whistles. Little is known about the beautiful jay's behaviour. The species forages in the understory and is generally inconspicuous. Only one nest has been described so far, it is a cup constructed with sticks and decorated on the outside with moss and lined with thin plant fibres. The eggs are green with small brown blotches; in the only nest found so far the clutch size was two eggs. The chicks fledged 24 days after hatching. It is becoming rare due to

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

. The species is uncommon and dependent upon primary forest. It is also sensitive to disturbance.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q690706 beautiful jay Birds of the Colombian Andes Birds of the Ecuadorian Andes beautiful jay Taxonomy articles created by Polbot