Plush-crested Jay
The Plush-crested Jay is a species of corvid found in parts of South America. This striking species gets its name from the stiff feathers on its head which give it a luxurious pompadour look.
Plush-crested Jays feed by foraging, taking small invertebrate prey as well as vegetable matter like fruits and seeds. They will also plunder nests for eggs or nestlings. They are opportunistic feeders, also known to forage food scraps around human habitation and take varied prey items like small frogs and insects.
The Plush-crested Jay is also known as the Urraca Jay. Urraca is the Spanish word for magpie and may be derived from the Latin word for "thievish." The population trend for the Plush-crested Jay is stable and the species conservation status is Least concern as of March 2014.
Details & Statistics
- Least Concern (LC)
- Near Threatened (NT)
- Vulnerable (VU)
- Endangered (EN)
- Critically Endangered (CR)
- Extinct in the Wild (EW)
- Extinct (EX)
Conservation
The Plush-crested Jay is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend appears to be stable, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
International Names
