The unicolored jay (''Aphelocoma unicolor'') is an ''Aphelocoma'' jay native to

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...

s of northwestern

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

and southern and southeastern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, from central

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

west to central

Guerrero Guerrero, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guerrero, is one of the 32 states that compose the administrative divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Guerrero, 85 municipalities. The stat ...

, southern

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

and extreme southern

San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí, officially the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí, is one of the 32 states which compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 59 municipalities and is named after its capital city, San Luis Potosí. It ...

. It is apparently a basal member of its

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

(Rice ''et al.'' 2003). At Montebello, Chiapas, it is a cooperative breeder (Webber and Brown 1994), and is not known to perform mating dances.

Subspecies

* ''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

*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. 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 unicolo''r) at Montebello, Chiapas, Mexico. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 57 (1): 1–75.

Footnotes

External links

* CONABIO
Unicolored jay drawing
Retrieved 2007-FEB-26.
RangeMaps & synopsis
nfoNatura NatureServe
Picture
VIREO Aphelocoma Meso-American montane bird species Birds described in 1847 Taxa named by Bernard du Bus de Gisignies Birds of the Sierra Madre del Sur {{Corvidae-stub