Florida scrub jay

Florida scrub jay
Temporal range: Gelasian - recent, 2–0 Ma
↓
Adult in Lyonia Preserve, near Deltona, Florida

Critically Imperiled  (NatureServe)[2]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
Genus: Aphelocoma
Species:
A. coerulescens
Binomial name
Aphelocoma coerulescens
(Bosc, 1795)
Synonyms
  • Corvus floridanus
    Bartram, 1791[3]
  • Corvus coerulescens
    Bosc, 1795
  • Aphelocoma californica coerulescens

The Florida scrub jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens[A]) is one of the species of scrub jay native to North America. It is the only species of bird endemic to the U.S. state of Florida and one of only 15 species endemic to the continental United States.[4] Because of this, it is keenly sought by birders. It is known to have been present in Florida as a distinct species for at least 2 million years,[5] and is possibly derived from the ancestors of Woodhouse's scrub jay.[6]

  1. ^ BirdLife International. (2016). Aphelocoma coerulescens. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22705629A94028132.en.
  2. ^ "NatureServe Explorer 2.0". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  3. ^ Bartram, William (1791). Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, etc. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.: James & Johnson. p. 290. ISBN 0-486-20013-2.
  4. ^ Cynthia Berger (2004-08-01). "All-American Birds". Nwf.org. National Wildlife Federation. Archived from the original on 2017-10-01. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
  5. ^ Emslie, Steven D. (1996). "A fossil scrub jay supports a recent systematic decision" (PDF). The Condor. 98 (4): 675–680. doi:10.2307/1369850. JSTOR 1369850.
  6. ^ Rice, Nathan H.; Martínez-Meyer, Enrique; Peterson, A. Townsend (2003). "Ecological niche differentiation in the Aphelocoma jays: a phylogenetic perspective". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 80 (3): 369–383. doi:10.1046/j.1095-8312.2003.00242.x.