Plush-crested Jay
Cap Blue Raven ( Cyanocorax chrysops )
The cap Blue Raven ( Cyanocorax chrysops ) is a blue raven from the family of corvids ( Corvidae ). He lives in the central South America.
Description
The cap Blue Raven reaches a body length of 36 cm. The head wearing a hood of short upright feathers that gives the bird its German name. His top of the head, throat and upper breast are black. The neck and the back top of the head is whitish - blue, the color changes to a dark purple on the back of the neck on. Above and below the eye is a purple - blue or greenish- blue spot, the spot under the eye connects to the violet cheek lining.
The top and the wings are dark blue-violet, the belly is cream-colored. The moderately long tail is slightly graduated at the top, over the terminal end of the tail feathers runs a broad pale yellow to off-white band.
The beak and feet are blackish, the iris is lemon yellow or pale yellow.
The white-naped Blue Raven ( Cyanocorax cyanopogon ) is very similar, but has a pure white neck.
Distribution and habitat
Its distribution area covers the southwestern Brazil to Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, and into northern Argentina. In the Andes of Bolivia, he is local to take you to heights of 2800 meters, but mostly he lives below 1500 meters.
The cap Blue Raven lives in open forest areas and in low, dense scrubland, forest islands in the middle of nowhere, in rain forest and secondary forest. Search for food, he embarks in adjacent plantations and agricultural areas. Open areas he does not fly in the rule.
Way of life
The breeding period is very little research. According to reports, the nests are in a height of 4 to 6 meters in trees. The nest consists in Paraguay from 2 to 4, in Brazil from 6-7 variably colored eggs. In Paraguay, the eggs are found from early October to early December.
Nutrition
Cap blue ravens are not rare in groups of ten to twelve individuals in search of food, they are going there, where the distribution area overlaps, often of the related Violet Blue Raven ( Cyanocorax cyanomelas ) accompanied.
Cap Blue Ravens are omnivores. They feed both on seeds, fruits and berries, grains of all kinds, nuts and other forest fruits as well as insects and their larvae, small vertebrates, bird eggs and nestlings. Occasionally, carrion is consumed. His food is the cap Blue Raven both on the forest floor as well as in the branches of the trees. He is in the trees mostly in the lower layers go. Cap Blue Ravens are considered predatory. Their specialty is robbing nests of other birds.
Subspecies
Four subspecies are distinguished so far:
- Cyanocorax chrysops diesingii Pelzeln, 1856 - This subspecies occurs in Brazil from the far east of the Amazonas state (right of the Rio Madeira) to the lower reaches of the Rio Tapajós south of the Amazon in the west of the state of Pará ago.
- Cyanocorax chrysops insperatus Pinto & Camargo, 1961 - The occurrence of this subspecies is restricted in Brazil on the Serra do cachimbo in the southwest of the state of Pará in the lower reaches of the Rio Tapajós ).
- Cyanocorax chrysops chrysops ( Vieillot, 1818) - The nominate form is found in the north, east and southeast of Bolivia, ( in the departments of Beni, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Tarija ), as well as in the adjacent southeastern Brazil ( the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and São Paulo south to Rio Grande do Sul ), Paraguay and Uruguay in the northwest and the north-eastern Argentina ( south to the province of Chaco and in the province of Entre Ríos ).
- Cyanocorax chrysops tucumanus Cabanis, 1883 - This subspecies is native to Argentina and living in the provinces of Salta, Tucumán, Catamarca and La Rioja.