Jay

Jays are several species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the crow family, Corvidae. The names jay and magpie are somewhat interchangeable, and the evolutionary relationships are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian magpie seems more closely related to the Eurasian jay than to the East Asian blue and green magpies, whereas the blue jay is not closely related to either.

For other uses, see Jay (disambiguation).

Jay
Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Aves
Order:
Passeriformes
Family:
Corvidae
Genera

Systematics and species

Jays are not a monophyletic group. Anatomical and molecular evidence indicates they can be divided into an American and an Old World lineage (the latter including the ground jays and the piapiac), while the gray jays of the genus Perisoreus form a group of their own.[1] The black magpie, formerly believed to be related to jays, is classified as a treepie. The crested jay (Platylophus galericulatus) is traditionally placed here, but its placement remains unresolved; it does not seem to be a corvid at all.[1]

Old World ("brown") jays

ImageGenusLiving Species
Garrulus Brisson, 1760
Podoces Fischer von Waldheim, 1821 - Ground jays
Ptilostomus Swainson, 1837

Grey jays

ImageGenusLiving Species
Perisoreus Bonaparte, 1831 - Grey jays

American jays

ImageGenusLiving Species
Aphelocoma Cabanis, 1851 - Scrub-jays
  • Florida scrub-jay, Aphelocoma coerulescens
  • Island scrub-jay, Aphelocoma insularis
  • California scrub-jay, Aphelocoma californica
  • Woodhouse's scrub-jay, Aphelocoma woodhouseii
  • Transvolcanic jay, Aphelocoma ultramarina
  • Mexican jay, Aphelocoma wollweberi
  • Unicolored jay, Aphelocoma unicolor
Gymnorhinus Wied-Neuwied, 1841
Cyanocitta Strickland, 1845
Calocitta G.R. Gray, 1841 - Magpie-jays
Cyanocorax F. Boie, 1826
Cyanolyca Cabanis, 1851

In culture

Slang

The word jay has an archaic meaning in American slang meaning a person who chatters impertinently.[2][3]

The term jaywalking was coined in 1915 to label persons crossing a busy street carelessly and becoming a traffic hazard.[4] The term began to imply recklessness or impertinent behavior as the convention became established.[5]

In January 2014, Canadian author Robert Joseph Greene embarked on a lobbying campaign among ornithologists in Europe and North America to get Merriam-Websters Dictionary to have a "Jabber of Jays" as an official term under bird groups.[6][7]

References
  1. Ericson, Per G. P.; Jansén, Anna-Lee; Johansson, Ulf S.; Ekman, Jan (May 2005). "Inter-generic relationships of the crows, jays, magpies and allied groups (Aves: Corvidae) based on nucleotide sequence data". Journal of Avian Biology. 36 (3): 222–234. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.493.5531. doi:10.1111/j.0908-8857.2001.03409.x.http://www.nrm.se/download/18.4e32c81078a8d9249800021299/Corvidae%5B1%5D.pdf PDF fulltext
  2. "Jay". freedictionary.com. An overly talkative person; a chatterbox.
  3. "Definition of Jay by Merriam-Webster". Merriam-Webster, Inc.
  4. "Definition of Jaywalker by Merriam-Webster". Merriam-Webster, Inc.
  5. "jay-walker". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. "Writer lobbies for new word to describe jays". Vancouver Courier. January 2, 2014. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
  7. "British Ornithologists' Union: What say ye countrymen to a jabber of jays?". Community News. January 6, 2014. Retrieved January 6, 2014.
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