Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Passeriformes > Corvidae > Aphelocoma > Aphelocoma ultramarina
 

Aphelocoma ultramarina (Mexican Jay; Gray-breasted Jay)

Language: Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The Transvolcanic Jay (Aphelocoma ultramarina) is a medium-large (~120 g) passerine similar in size to most other jays, with a blue head, blue-gray mantle, blue wings and tail, gray breast and underparts. The sexes are morphologically similar, and juveniles differ only in having less blue coloration. The iris is brown and legs are black. It is most readily distinguished by the plain (unstreaked) throat and breast, and the mantle contrasting less with the head and wings.
View Wikipedia Record: Aphelocoma ultramarina

Infraspecies

Aphelocoma ultramarina arizonae
Aphelocoma ultramarina couchi
Aphelocoma ultramarina ultramarina

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  130 grams
Birth Weight [1]  6 grams
Clutch Size [3]  4
Clutches / Year [1]  1
Diet [2]  Omnivore
Incubation [1]  18 days
Maximum Longevity [1]  19 years

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Map Climate Land
Use
Arizona Mountains forests United States Nearctic Temperate Coniferous Forests
Bajío dry forests Mexico Neotropic Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
Central Mexican matorral Mexico Nearctic Deserts and Xeric Shrublands
Chihuahuan desert Mexico, United States Nearctic Deserts and Xeric Shrublands
Jalisco dry forests Mexico Neotropic Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
Meseta Central matorral Mexico Nearctic Deserts and Xeric Shrublands
Sierra Madre de Oaxaca pine-oak forests Mexico Neotropic Tropical and Subtropical Coniferous Forests
Sierra Madre Occidental pine-oak forests Mexico, United States Nearctic Tropical and Subtropical Coniferous Forests
Sierra Madre Oriental pine-oak forests Mexico, United States Nearctic Tropical and Subtropical Coniferous Forests
Sinaloan dry forests Mexico Neotropic Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests Mexico Neotropic Tropical and Subtropical Coniferous Forests

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Map Climate Land Use
Bandelier National Monument V 8107 New Mexico, United States
Beaver Creek Biosphere Reserve 275028 Arizona, United States  
Big Bend Biosphere Reserve National Park II 815561 Texas, United States
Chiricahua National Monument V 1421 Arizona, United States
Coronado National Monument National Memorial III 4360 Arizona, United States
Fort Bowie National Historic Site III 1004 Arizona, United States
Guadalupe Mountains National Park II 46114 Texas, United States
Reserva de la Biosfera El Cielo Biosphere Reserve 353161 Mexico  
Reserva de la Biosfera Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve VI 955579 Queretaro, Mexico  
Reserva de la Michilia Biosphere Reserve VI 23405 Durango, Mexico  
Saguaro National Park II 11686 Arizona, United States

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website Map
Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Mexico, United States No
Mesoamerica Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama No

Prey / Diet

Opuntia robusta[4]
Opuntia streptacantha[4]
Pinus edulis (Colorado pinyon)[5]
Pinus ponderosa (Ponderosa pine)[5]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Antilocapra americana (pronghorn)1
Aphelocoma californica (Western Scrub-Jay)2
Canis latrans (Coyote)1
Carpodacus mexicanus (House Finch)2
Chaetodipus nelsoni (Nelson's pocket mouse)2
Colaptes auratus (Northern Flicker)2
Corvus cryptoleucus (Chihuahuan Raven)2
Cyanocitta stelleri (Steller's Jay)2
Dipodomys phillipsii (Phillips's kangaroo rat)2
Ernobius montanus2
Ernobius punctulatus1
Frankliniella occidentalis (western flower thrips)1
Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus (Pinyon Jay)2
Leptonycteris nivalis (Mexican long-nosed bat)2
Liomys irroratus (Mexican spiny pocket mouse)2
Mephitis macroura (Hooded Skunk)2
Neotoma albigula (white-throated woodrat)2
Neotoma cinerea (bushy-tailed woodrat)1
Neotoma goldmani (Goldman's woodrat)2
Nucifraga columbiana (Clark's Nutcracker)2
Oreamnos americanus (mountain goat)1
Pecari tajacu (collared peccary)1
Peromyscus boylii (brush mouse)1
Peromyscus truei (pinyon mouse)1
Pipilo fuscus (Canyon Towhee)2
Procyon lotor (Raccoon)1
Sciurus aberti (Abert's squirrel)2
Sciurus arizonensis (Arizona gray squirrel)1
Sciurus griseus (western gray squirrel)1
Spermophilus lateralis (golden-mantled ground squirrel)1
Spermophilus variegatus (rock squirrel)1
Sylvilagus audubonii (Desert Cottontail)2
Tamias amoenus (yellow-pine chipmunk)1
Tamias cinereicollis (gray-collared chipmunk)2
Tamias panamintinus (panamint chipmunk)1
Tamias ruficaudus (red-tailed chipmunk)1
Tamias rufus (Hopi chipmunk)1
Tamiasciurus douglasii (Douglas's squirrel)1
Taxidea taxus (American Badger)2
Toxostoma curvirostre (Curve-billed Thrasher)2
Urocyon cinereoargenteus (Gray Fox)1
Zenaida asiatica (White-winged Dove)2

Range Map

Link to Map
North America;

External References

Photos

Citations

Species recognized by Banks R.C., 17-Oct-2001, ITIS Global: The Integrated Taxonomic Information System in Catalog of Life 2011
Attributes / relations provided by ♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774 ♦ 2Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org ♦ 3Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303 ♦ 4Seed predation and dispersal in a dominant desert plant: Opuntia, ants, birds, and mammals, Mario González-Espinosa and Pedro F. Quintana-Ascencio, Frugivores and Seed Dispersal (eds A. Estrada & T. H. Fleming.), pp. 273–284. Dr W. Junk, Publishers, Dordrecht. ♦ 5Balda, Russell P. and Kamil, Alan, Linking Life Zones, Life History Traits, Ecology, and Spatial Cognition in Four Allopatric Southwestern Seed Caching Corvids (2006). Papers in Behavior and Biological Sciences. Paper 36.
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 gis.wwfus.org/wildfinder
Protected Areas provided by Biological Inventories of the World's Protected Areas in cooperation between the Information Center for the Environment at the University of California, Davis and numerous collaborators.
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation International
Images provided by Google Image Search
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Range map provided by Ridgely, R. S., T. F. Allnutt, T. Brooks, D. K. McNicol, D. W. Mehlman, B. E. Young, and J. R. Zook. 2007. Digital Distribution Maps of the Birds of the Western Hemisphere, version 3.0. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia, USA.
Data provided by NatureServe in collaboration with Robert Ridgely, James Zook, The Nature Conservancy - Migratory Bird Program, Conservation International - CABS, World Wildlife Fund - US, and Environment Canada - WILDSPACE.
Weather provided by NOAA METAR Data Access