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✎ Natalia Guzmán

✎ Natalia Guzmán

✎ Camilo Alméciga

Green Jay
Cyanocorax yncasAndean region

  • Generalities
  • Morpho-functionality
  • Lifecycle
  • Distribution

RECORRIDO VIRTUAL POR LA BIODIVERSIDAD DE COLOMBIA
Museo de Historia Natural
Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Green Jay
Cyanocorax yncas

It is also known as the green magpie, it is the only species in its family that has yellow and green colors. Generally forages for food in groups, this consists of fruits, insects such as rooks and grasshoppers, and the eggs of some reptiles. They find their food mainly in the soil and low strata of the mountainous forests where they live.

Conservation status

Extinct

Extinct in the Wild

Critically Endangered

Endangered

Vulnerable

Near Threatened

Least Concern

Not Evaluated

Data Deficient

Morpho-functionality

Beak

Its beak facilitates the capture of insects and fleshy fruits that find in its habitat.

Chicks

Chicks have a type of feather called philoplumas (they are hair-shaped) that cover them and help maintain their body heat.

Intelligence

It is presumed that their memory and curiosity are due to their high brain capacity, a common characteristic in the corvid family.

Lifecycle

It is a monogamous species and forms a couple at any time of the year. Both parents participate in the choice of the nest construction area and its elaboration. The average in egg number per laying is four. The female alone incubates them for 17 days and is fed by the male. In South American populations this species may follow a cooperative breeding system consisting of the reproductive pair and several helpers which feed the female. When the chick is born, its father continues to feed it for five days and then both parents perform this task. Once the hatchling has left the nest, it continues to be fed by members of its group for about three weeks.

Green Jay

Distribution

It inhabits mountainous and humid lowland forests. It is capable of supporting intervened areas such as pine, cypress, cocoa and coffee plantations or in secondary forests. There are two populations of mountain carriquíes distributed as follows: the first is along the Andean mountain range from Venezuela to Bolivia. The second is north of the banks of the Rio Grande, south of Texas, to the north of Honduras.

Distribution area