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© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Corvus orru, Torresian Crow |
© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Corvus corax, Common Raven |
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© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Cyanocorax mystacalis, White-tailed Jay |
© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Cyanocorax chrysops, Plush-crested Jay |
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© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Cyanocorax cyanomelas, Purplish Jay |
© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Cyanocitta cristata, Blue Jay |
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© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Cyanocitta stelleri, Stellers Jay |
© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Terpsiphone paradisi, Asian Paradise-Flycatcher |
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© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Pica nuttalli, Yellow-billed Magpie |
© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Pica pica, Eurasian or Common Magpie |
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© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Pica pica, Eurasian or Common Magpie |
© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Aphelocoma californica, Western Scrub-Jay |
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© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Aphelocoma californica, Western Scrub-Jay |
© Larry Thompson, 2007-2015
· 10 Dendrocitta vagabunda, Rufous Treepie |
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© Copyright Tom Stephenson, 2006-2011
· 0 Prionops plumatus |
Following modified from Monterey Bay
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Top | See original
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BIRD FAMILIES OF THE WORLD
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a web page by Don Roberson
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CROWS, JAYS & ALLIES
Corvidae
The Corvidae is a large family with familiar crows and jays plus magpies, treepies, nutcrackers and choughs. Although derived from a single ancestor in ancient Australasia, their adaptive radiation has expanded to almost every habitat on earth (Sibley & Ahlquist 1990, dos Anjos 2009). They are present at my backyard feeder in California (
California Scrub-Jay
, left) to colorful corvids in tropical jungles (
Common Green-Magpie
in Thailand, above), while black-robed ravens and crows scavenge road-kill in the deserts of Australia (
Little Crow
, below).
Corvids show quick intelligence and curiosity. During the 19th century these were considered the “most advanced” birds, based upon the belief that Darwinian evolution brings “progress.” The “most intelligent” birds were listed last, reflecting their position “atop the pyramid.” Modern biologists reject the concept of hierarchical “progress” in evolution; recent taxonomies place corvids somewhere in the middle of the passerines.
Sibley & Ahlquist (1990) showed that corvids first arose in Australasia and spread from there around the globe. Early branches of the ancestral stock evolved into many of the groups of Australasia, including currawongs, birds-of-paradise, whipbirds, quail-thrushes, whistlers, monarchs and many others. Both the shrikes and the vireos are offshoots from this root, and so are African families like bush-shrikes, helmet-shrikes, and vangas. The close relationship of these groups to the corvids was, perhaps, the most important finding of the molecular work by Sibley and colleagues. It has served to reorganize the taxonomic arrangement of the world's passerine families.
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From a global perspective perhaps the crows and ravens are the best known corvids. There seems to be a crow or a raven just about everywhere there is land. These range from the dark-eyed
American Crow
in my California yard, a very widespread species in North America (above left, a youngster) to the pale-eyed
Forest Raven
of Tasmania and southern Australia (above right). These species have 'normal' bills, but
White-necked Raven
of southern and east Africa (right) has a massive bill. These huge ravens, including Common Raven
Corvus corax
, are the largest "songbirds" on earth.
The local American Crows that live in my backyard raise young each year with the help of the prior year's brood, a character shared with crows on Cape Cod, MA, and the Northwestern Crow
C. caurinus
of Puget Sound (it may be just a race of American Crow). In contrast, American Crows in the interior break into nesting pairs and raise young without helpers. What influences these behaviors remains a mystery. There is still much to be learned about these common and ubiquitous birds.
Several species of crow have varying amounts of white, from the white nape of White-necked Raven to the more extensive white collar of
Collared Crow
in China (below left) to the most white underparts of the little-known
Piping Crow
, an endemic to Sulawesi (below right). Vocalizations also are variable, from deep-pitched croaks in Common Raven to upslurred piping whistles in Piping Crow.
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Many crows and ravens are common and widespread but some species are limited to single islands and some can be critically endangered. The little-known
Long-billed Crow
, shown in flight over the forests of Halmahera (above), is restricted to the islands of the northern Moluccas and appears to live in low densities in the most heavily forested parts of these islands. It is a canopy bird with almost nothing known of its diet or breeding biology (dos Anjos 2009). The Banggai Crow
Corvus unicolor
, restricted to one small island east of Sulawesi, and the Mariana Crow
C. kubaryi
, endemic to Guam and Rota, are considered "critically endangered" [I was very fortunate to see a Marianas Crow on Guam almost 40 years ago]. The Hawaiian Crow
C. hawaiiensis
is now extinct in the wild. A small captive flock remains but the species was last present in the wild in 2002. Other islands with endemic crows include Flores, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, Jamaica, Cuba, and Hispaniola.
Several genera of corvids bear the name "magpie." The colorful tropical Asian genus
Cissa
, composed of four species and exemplified by
Common Green-Magpie
(shown at top of this page), is one them. Genus
Urocissa
is another, with five species, and the best known is
Red-billed Blue Magpie
(below), found from China to southeast Asia, and in the Himalayan foothills of India and Nepal.
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The classic black-and-white magpies are in genus
Pica
, with 3 species. These are temperate, open-country birds of the Holarctic.
Eurasian Magpie
(above) is the bird of Shakespeare and literature. The striking
Yellow-billed Magpie
(below) is a California endemic, restricted to the state's Central Valley and valleys of the coastal ranges. It has suffered from West Nile virus and local extirpations with the spread of suburbia; see Roberson & Tenney (1992).
There are ten treepies in 3 genera, and largest of which are the 7 in genus
Dendrocitta
of south Asia. A fine example is
Rufous Treepie
(right), a widespread bird of India through southeast Asia. Like the magpies in
Pica
, many treepies are birds of more open scrub or woodlands.
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High elevation corvids include 3 species of nutcracker in genus
Nucifraga
.
Clark's Nutcracker
(left, this one carrying a pine cone) lives in the Hudsonian and Alpine life zones of mountains in western North America.
Eurasian Nutcracker
(below left) inhabits Palearctic coniferous forests from Europe to Siberia. Both nutcrackers are erratic vagrants far from their resident ranges. This Eurasian Nutcracker (below left) was a fall vagrant to the island of Texel in the Netherlands. Because it appeared during a huge birding convention on the Isle of Texel, it was seen by hundreds of twitchers. It was half-surrounded by dozens of photographers when I snapped this shot (perhaps giving it this half-dazed, half-surprised visage....).
Two species of Chough (
Pyrrhocorax
), one red-billed and one yellow-billed, are primarily montane alpine species, but there is a population of coastal cliff-nested Red-billed Chough
P. pyrrhocorax
in western Europe.
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Odd and remote corvids include four species of ground-jay (genus
Podoces
) in the barren steppes of central Asia to Mongolia, and the Taklimakan Desert. This pair of
Mongolian Ground-Jay
(above right) were high on the Tibetan Plateau of Qinghai Province, China. Other strange corvids include Stresemann's Bushcrow
Zavattariornis stresemanni
of the Borana region of southern Ethiopia, the exceptionally long-tailed Piapiac
Prilstomus afer
of the sub-Saharan savanna, and the bare-faced Rook
Corvus frugilegus
of Eurasia.
Eurasian Jackdaw
(right) is the Western Palearctic representative of the two jackdaws in Eurasia. Jackdaws are small, short-billed, sociable crows that use a wide variety of habitats, including parks and gardens. Eurasian Jackdaw is gray-naped and pale-eyed; the more migratory Daurian Jackdaw
Corvus dauuricus
of eastern Eurasia is dark-eyed and has a black-and-white plumage that recalls that of Piping Crow (see Piping Crow near the top of this page).
Two other oddities are currently placed with corvids, but one or both are probably better placed in another family — or even their own family? Black Magpie
Platysmurus leucopterus
of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo is either a primitive black corvid or something else.
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This brings us finally to 42 species of jays. These are most abundant in the New World. Where I live in coastal central California,
California Scrub-Jay
(bathing, above, or feeding young, left, or just showing fresh plumage, below left), is a dominant species. Yet the
Island Scrub-Jay
(middle below) is an endemic with a tiny range, confined to Santa Cruz Island among the Channel Islands off southern California. It differed from the coastal mainland jays in behavior and several physical traits (note the big bill compared with the Western Scrub-Jay; see more in Atwood & Collins 1997), just as the
Florida Scrub-Jay
(below right) was quite different behaviorally in Florida (Pitelka 1951, Woolfenden & Fitzpatrick 1984). For these reasons, plus biochemical and fossil evidence, the A.O.U. in 1998 split them into three separate species. There is evidence that interior scrub-jays are also distinctive (Pitelka 1945) and several years later, the AOU split those as well, as Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay
A. woodhouseii
.
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California Scrub-Jay
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Island Scrub-Jay
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Florida Scrub-Jay
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The two other widespread and common North American jays, both of them bearing crests, are
Steller's Jay
of the West (above left), and
Blue Jay
in the East (above right). Even non-birders have heard of "blue jays" so that is the term most often used for both scrub-jays and Steller's Jays in western North America. A "real" Blue Jay in California is a super vagrant (and the one shown above right was, indeed, a major rarity for this State!).
A northern species —
Canada Jay
(right) — resides in coniferous forests across northern North America, and ranges only to the most northern parts of California. It can be elusive to find but is actually quite tame around campgrounds, and one of its local names is "Camp Robber." In 2018, A.O.U. re-adopted the original name Canada Jay (for decades they had been known as "Gray Jay").
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Jays in the Neotropics include some strange and beautiful species. One colorful but very secretive example is
Black-throated Jay
of montane forests from southern Mexico to Honduras. Perhaps no Central American corvid is more highly sought than
Tufted Jay
(above right) with its outrageous frontal crest. It is endemic to cloud-forested barrancas in northwestern Mexico, moving in loose bands that are sometimes hard to find, but curious and approachable when located. It was only discovered in 1934; many longtime Mexican observers still use the old name "Dickey Jay" which has a certain panache.
In South America there is another set of exotic jays, including
Curl-crested Jay
(below left) of wooded patches in open grasslands, and yet another deep blue to violet-colored species, the rather secretive
Purplish Jay
of the Pantanal.
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Photos
: The photo of
Common Green-Magpie
Cissa chinensis
was taken from a hide near Kaeng Krachen NP, Thailand, on 20 Dec 2012. The
California Scrub-Jay
Aphelocoma californica
was in my backyard in Pacific Grove, California, on 24 Apr 2011; additional shots of this species are farther down the page. The
Little Crow
Corvus bennetti
was feeding on a dead wallaroo at Simpsons Gap in West MacDonnell NP, Australia on 16 Aug 2008. The
American Crow
Corvus brachyrhynchos
was a youngster in my Pacific Grove backyard on 24 June 2011. The
Forest Raven
Corvus tasmanicus
was at Peter Murrell Reserve, Tasmania, on 21 Aug 2008. The
White-necked Raven
Corvus albicollis
was at Nieuwoudtville Wildflower Reserve, South Africa, on 6 Jul 2005. The
Collared Crow
Corvus torquatus
was near Foping Reserve, China, on 10 Nov 2010. The family of
Piping Crow
Corvus typicus
was in Lore Lindu NP, Sulawesi, on 27 Sep 2011. The
Long-billed Crow
Corvus validus
was near Foli, Halmahera, Indonesia, on 10 Oct 2011. The
Red-billed Blue Magpie
Urocissa erythrorhyncha
was was at a temple near Mae Wong NP, Thailand, on 29 Dec 2012. The
Eurasian Magpie
Pica pica
was in Vondelpark, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 6 July 2013. The
Yellow-billed Magpie
Pica nuttalli
was in California's Central Valley on 5 Feb 2005. The
Rufous Treepie
Dendrocitta vagabunda
was at Ranthambhore NP, India, on 21 Mar 2001. The
Clark's Nutcracker
Nucifraga columbina
was near Yosemite NP, California, on 12 Aug 2009. The vagrant
Eurasian Nutcracker
Nucifraga caryocatactes
was at Texel, the Netherlands, on 15 Oct 1991. The
Mongolian Ground-Jay
Podoces hendersoni
was in the Caka Valley, Tibetan Plateau, China, on 20 June 2004. The
Eurasian Jackdaw
Corvus monedula
was in Vondelpark, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 6 July 2013.The bathing
California Scrub-Jay
Aphelocoma californica
was at Laguna Grande Park, Seaside, California, on 20 Nov 2007; the adult feeding young was in my Pacific Grove backyard on 8 July 2006. The
Island Scrub-Jay
A. insularis
was on Santa Cruz I., California, on 17 Aug 1992. The
Florida Scrub-Jay
A. coerulescens
was at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Florida, on 21 Apr 2000. The
Steller's Jay
Cyanocitta stelleri
was in my Pacific Grove backyard on 22 Sep 2013. The vagrant
Blue Jay
Cyanocitta cristata
was at Rockville, Solano Co., California, on 15 Jan 2006. The
Canada Jay
Perisoreus canadensis
was at Little River, Mendocino Co., California, on 1 July 2001. The
Black-throated Jay
Cyanolyca pumilo
was in the cloud forest at El Triunfo, Chiapas, Mexico, on 23 Mar 2002. The
Tufted Jay
Cyanocorax dickeyi
was along the Durango Hwy, Sinaloa, Mexico, on 22 Feb 1987. The
Curl-crested Jay
Cyanocorax cristatellus
was at Emas NP, Brazil, on 28 July 2010. The
Purplish Jay
Cyanocorax cyanomelas
was in the Brazilian Pantanal 19 July 2010.
All photos ©
Don Roberson
; all rights reserved.
Bibliographic note
:
Family Book:
Goodwin, D. 1976.
Crows of the World
. British Museum & Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca, N.Y.
This was considered a monumental effort at the time it came out, and was one of the first bird family books I acquired. Unlike the recent plethora of cookie-cutter family books, this one was just not a set of species accounts put together within one cover. The first third of the book is detailed text about the Family: a summary of what was then known about corvid biology, ecology, and behavior. In this sense it is like the recent family summaries in the
Handbook of the Birds of the World
. The species accounts were as updated as was then possible, but for obscure species like Flores Crow or Banggai Crow the subheads "Feeding," "Nesting, "Voice," and "Social Behavior" all read "No information." In contrast, a common European species like Rook went on for 8 pages. Every species had a black-and-white sketch (some showed behavior also) but the few color plates showed some just an example or two of each genera, and all were done in an unattractive "cut-out" side-view field-guide style. This book does not measure up to today's information, but was not bad for its time and the information seemed accurate. It was conservative in taxonomy and covered 116 species (but did split today's Gray Jay into two species). It is now a "classic" and is cited again and again in the literature, but is outdated except for its good summary of biology for the more common species.
Family Book:
Madge, S., and H. Burn. 1994.
Crows and Jays: A Guide to the Crows, Jays and Magpies of the World
. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA.
In stark contrast to Goodwin (1976), this modern book has almost no introductory information about the Family Corvidae. Instead it has the now familiar set of color plates for every species opposite short details and a range map, and then the bulk of the book is species accounts. These are telegraphic in nature and pack a lot of information, but Rook takes up only two pages while both Flores and Banggai crows are a full half-page each. We learn that the Banggai Crow is known from only two old specimens and that it may be extinct; recent crows sightings from this little island off Sulawesi may be expanding Slender-billed Crows. For the endangered Flores Crow the voice is now known, but habits and breeding details still are unknown. Thus this book does nicely update Goodwin's information. The artwork shows more natural birds than those in Goodwin, and is quite attractive. The authors are liberal in taxonomy and list 120 species, including splits in Short-tailed Magpie, Eurasian Nutcracker, and Large-billed Crow (among others), decisions that still are not widely accepted [yet they did not anticipate the three-way split of Scrub Jay]. They include a nice i.d. chart of Australian crows/ravens, but then favor the split of "C. boreus" proposed by Rowley (1967), the "Relict Raven" of New South Wales, a position not generally followed by Australian ornithologists. They further confuse the matter by using the English name "New England Raven." Only an Aussie (Rowley) and two Brits (Madge & Burn) could think this was an appropriate English name from a worldwide perspective; never mind the millions who think they live in "New England" in the northeastern United States! Yet it was when I starting reviewing species I knew that I became most disappointed. They did discuss recent range expansion in Blue Jay and the few vagrants to California, but their half-page on Yellow-billed Magpie was very weak. Their range descriptions are quite wrong, claiming that coastal birds extend from Ventura to San Francisco (the species gets no where near San Francisco as a wild bird, although occasional escapees have been known). They follow this mistake by claiming "occasional birds have wandered up the Pacific coast as far as Oregon" which is a major hoot. Yellow-billed Magpies never reach the coast; are entirely absent from northwestern California; and the only vagrants to Oregon have been well inland north of the Central Valley. Clearly the authors know nothing about California. Further, the references they cite are (a) a major work on Black-billed Magpie that added a bit about Yellow-billed as an afterthought (Birkhead 1991), and (b) Goodwin's 1976 book! No mention at all of the major ecological work on Yellow-billed Magpie (Verbeek 1973) or any California works, the only place where the bird exists! The authors emphasize the species' adaptability in the Central Valley but entirely overlooked its vulnerability in oak savanna habitat to the west, and say nothing of local extirpations. Although the book is attractive and leafing through it is fun, I don't consider it nearly as authoritative for its time as Goodwin (1976) was two decades before.
Literature cited
:
Atwood, J. L., and C. T. Collins. 1997. The Island Scrub-Jay: origins, behavior, and ecology. Birding 29: 476-485.
Birkhead, T. 1991. The Magpies: the Ecology and Behavior of Black-billed and Yellow-billed Magpies. Poyser, London.
dos Anjos, L. 2009. Family Corvidae (Corvids), pp. 494 –641
in
Handbook of the Birds of the World (del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott & D.A. Christie, eds). Vol. 14. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain.
Haemig, P. D. 1989. A comparative experimental study of exploratory behavior in Santa Cruz Island and mainland California Scrub Jays
Aphelocoma coerulescens
. Bird Behav. 8: 32-42.
Pitelka, F. A. 1945. Differentiation of the Scrub Jay,
Aphelocoma coerulescens
, in the Great Basin and Arizona. Condor 47: 23-26.
Pitelka, F. A. 1951. Speciation and ecological distribution in American jays of the genus
Aphelocoma
. Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool. 50: 195-464.
Roberson, D., and C. Tenney, eds. 1993. Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Monterey County, California. Monterey Pen. Audubon Soc., Carmel CA.
Rowley, I. 1967. A fourth species of Australian corvid. Emu 66: 191-210.
Sibley, C.G., and J.E. Ahlquist. 1990. Phylogeny and Classification of Birds: a Study of Molecular Evolution. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT.
Verbeek, N. A. M. 1973. The exploitation system of the Yellow-billed Magpie. Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool. 99: 1-58.
Woolfenden, G. E., and J. W. Fitzpatrick. 1984. The Florida Scrub Jay: demography of a cooperative-breeding birds. Monogr. Pop. Biol. No. 20, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton.
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TOP
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page created 30 Jan 2000, heavily revised 6-20 July 2014, slightly updated 24 Dec 2018
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all text & photos © Don Roberson, except as otherwise indicated; all rights reserved
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Updated: 2024-05-03 21:35:14 gmt
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