Xinjiang ground jay (''Podoces biddulphi'') or Biddulph's ground jay, 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 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

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. It is not larger than an adult human's hand and has a brownish white coat of feathers. Since 2004, the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

(IUCN) has listed the jay's

conservation status The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation ...

as "

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

" due to

habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological proces ...

and degradation. Its population is small, and its range is limited.

Breeding

The breeding season lasts from March to May. Females incubate clutches of 1-3 eggs for 18 days in open nests; they mainly incubate in the morning, and spend more time doing so if temperatures are low. When temperatures are high, they also shade the clutch. They prefer to nest toward the center of oases. Parents share feeding duties. Xinjiang ground jays are monogamous. They exhibit sexual dimorphism, and the males are larger than females. They are sometimes attracted to human-influenced areas such as highways, but prefer not to nest near them.

References

Xinjiang ground jay Birds of Western China Endemic birds of China Xinjiang ground jay Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Corvidae-stub