Purplish-backed Jay, Cyanocorax beecheii
Purplish-backed Jay, Cyanocorax beecheii. Photograph taken within the greater Alamos area, Sonora, April 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.
Purplish-backed Jay, Cyanocorax beecheii. Photograph taken within the greater Barras de Piaxtla area, Sinaloa, March 2017. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.
The Purplish-backed Jay, Cyanocorax beecheii, is a member of the Corvidae Family of Crows, Jays and Magpies, which has one hundred twenty-eight global members placed in twenty-three genera, and is one of sixteen global species of the Cyanocorax Genus. They are also known as Beechey’s Jay and in Mexico as chara de Beechey.
The Purplish-backed Jay is mid-sized in stature. They are strikingly colored with dark blue to deep purple back, wings, tails and underparts, and an all black head and undersides. They have a black bill, their iris is yellow, and their legs are bright yellow. They have noteworthy stiffened, brush-like forehead feathers. The sexes are similar in appearance; the males are slightly larger than the females.
The Purplish-backed Jay is found in dry deciduous forests, coastal scrub and mangroves at elevations below 600 m (2,000 feet). The Purplish-backed Jay is a highly social species that are bold, noisy and intelligent birds that travel, breed and forage in groups. They are omnivores that consume arthropods, lizards, and seasonal acorns, berries, and pine nuts. Breeding is monogamous but occurs in co-ops. The females stay on the nests around the clock with help provided with members of the co-op. Their nests are preyed upon by Mexican Beaded Lizards, Heloderma horridum, snakes and Black-throated Magpie-Jays, Calocitta colliei.
The Purplish-backed Jay is ENDEMIC to Mexico being a year-round, non-migratory resident of the the coastal lowlands within the Pacific Slow of northwestern Mexico from southeast Sonoroa south to Nayarit.
The Purplish-backed Jay can be easily confused with the San Blas Jay, Cyanocorax sanblasiana (overlap in Nayarit; small in stature, brighter blue dorsally, duller yellow tarsi and toes).
From a conservation perspective the Purplish-backed Jay is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely-distributed populations that are estimated at 20,000 to 49,999 individuals. Under Mexican law they are considered to be THREATENED.
Their populations are believed to be in decline with their long term viability being threatened by habitat destruction including unsustainable logging, wood harvesting, and clearing for agriculture and livestock grazing.