Steller's jay
Steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) is a bird native to western North America and the mountains of Central America, closely related to the blue jay found in eastern North America. It is the only crested jay west of the Rocky Mountains. It is also sometimes colloquially called a "blue jay" in the Pacific Northwest, but is distinct from the blue jay (C. cristata) of eastern North America. The species inhabits pine-oak and coniferous forests. Taxonomy Steller's jay was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the crows in the genus Corvus and coined the binomial name Corvus stelleri. Gmelin based his account on "Stellers crow" that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had examined a specimen belonging to the naturalist Joseph Banks that had been collected in Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island off the Pacific coast of Canada. The specimen was one of the birds collected on Captain James Cook's third voyage to the Pacific Ocean. During this voyage Cook visited Nootka Sound from 29 March until 26 Apr 1778. Steller's jay is now placed with the blue jay in the genus Cyanocitta that was introduced in 1845 by the English ornithologist Hugh Strickland. The bird is named after the German naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, the first European to record them, in 1741. Thirteen subspecies are recognised: C. s. stelleri (Gmelin, JF, 1788) – south Alaska and coastal west Canada to northwest Oregon (northwest USA) C. s. carlottae Osgood, 1901 – Haida Gwaii (off west Canada) C. s. frontalis (Ridgway, 1873) – central Oregon, east California to central west Nevada (west USA) C. s. carbonacea Grinnell, 1900 – coastal central west California (west USA) C. s. annectens (Baird, SF, 1874) – central British Columbia to southeast Alberta (southwest Canada) south to northeast Oregon and northwest Wyoming (northwest USA) C. s. macrolopha Baird, SF, 1854 – east Nevada to southwest South Dakota (central west USA) south to north Mexico C. s. diademata (Bonaparte, 1850) – northwest Mexico C. s. phillipsi Browning, 1993 – mainly San Luis Potosí (central Mexico) C. s. azteca Ridgway, 1899 – central south Mexico C. s. coronata (Swainson, 1827) – southwest, central east, south Mexico and west Guatemala C. s. purpurea Aldrich, 1944 – Michoacán (southwest Mexico) C. s. restricta Phillips, AR, 1966 – Oaxaca (south Mexico) C. s. suavis Miller, W & Griscom, 1925 – Nicaragua and Honduras Description Steller's jay is about long and weighs about . Steller's jay shows a great deal of regional variation throughout its range. Blackish-brown-headed birds from the north gradually become bluer-headed farther south. Steller's jay has a more slender bill and longer legs than the blue jay and, in northern populations, has a much more pronounced crest. It is also somewhat larger. The head is blackish-brown, black, or dark blue, depending on the subspecies of the bird, with