Cayenne Jay
[order] PASSERIFORMES | [family] Corvidae | [latin] Cyanocorax cayanus | [UK] Cayenne Jay | [FR] Geai de Cayenne | [DE] Cayenne-Blauhaher | [ES] Chara de Cayena | [NL] Cayenne-gaai
Subspecies
Monotypic species
Physical charateristics
The Cayenne Jay is mostly black, blue and white with a short black frontal crest. It has a black forehead, sides of the head, throat and chest are black, with a white moustachial streak. The rear crown and nape are prominently white, as are the lower breast and belly and the tip to the tail. The wings and tail are bluish-purple and the back is brownish-purple. Forecrown (including short frontal crest), sides of head, throat, and upper breast black. Small bluish white or whitish spot above and below eye; malar stripe whitish. Crown, rear crown and nape white; the white of the nape diffuses into the violet-brown or purplish-brown back and scapulars. Wings and tail bluish purple, tail slightly graduated and broadly tipped white. Lower breast, belly, and thighs creamy white.
Listen to the sound of Cayenne Jay
[audio:http://www.aviflevoland.nl/sounddb/C/Cayenne Jay.mp3]
Copyright remark: Most sounds derived from xeno-canto
| wingspan min.: | 15 | cm | wingspan max.: | 17 | cm |
| size min.: | 31 | cm | size max.: | 33 | cm |
| incubation min.: | 0 | days | incubation max.: | 0 | days |
| fledging min.: | 0 | days | fledging max.: | 0 | days |
| broods: | 0 | eggs min.: | 3 | ||
| eggs max.: | 4 |
Range
South America : North Amazonia
Habitat
Found in the canopy of wooded savannas and lowland forests. Fairly common along forest borders, secondary forests and woodland and scrub regions in sandy soil. Essentially absent from continuous forest
Reproduction
The Cayenne Jay demonstrates many characteristics of communal breeders. They occur in family groups when breeding with more than 2 individuals feeding nestlings. No aggression between group members near the nest has been observed. Individuals also participate in allopreening. Little information. Mees reported a nest in the crown “of a tall tree” in Suriname; the nest was constructed of twigs (Haverschmidt and Mees 1994). Bosque and Molina (2002) presented more detailed information on two nests from Venezuela. One nest was in a fork about 5 m above the ground in a large tree overhanging a river. The second nest was 3.6 m above the ground in a mango tree at the edge of a Native American settlement. Both nests were cup shaped and made of twigs with no lining. Four eggs were observed in the second nest. These averaged 29.9 mm (SD