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103-557: 9 subspecies; see text The Canada jay ( Perisoreus canadensis ), also known as the grey jay , gray jay , camp robber , or whisky jack , is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae . It is found in boreal forests of North America north to the tree line , and in the Rocky Mountains subalpine zone south to New Mexico and Arizona . A fairly large songbird , the Canada jay has pale grey underparts, darker grey upperparts, and

206-464: A dominant juvenile forces its siblings to leave the natal area. The dominant bird remains with its parents until the following season, while its siblings leave the natal territory to join an unrelated pair who failed to breed. In a study by Dan Strickland, two-thirds of dominant juveniles were male. In studies conducted in Ontario and Quebec, the mortality rate for dominant juveniles was 52%, and mortality

309-784: A magnolia warbler ( Dendroica magnolia ) in flight. They have been reported to opportunistically hunt young amphibians such as the western chorus frog ( Pseudacris triseriata ) in Chambers Lake, Colorado , and the long-toed salamander ( Ambystoma macrodactylum ) in Whitehorse Bluff in Crater Lake National Park , Oregon. Canada jays have been seen landing on moose ( Alces alces ) to remove and eat engorged winter ticks ( Dermacentor albipictus ) during April and May in Algonquin Provincial Park. Researchers also found

412-502: A tui -sized bird) and several bones of at least one species of saddleback -sized bird have recently been described. These date from the Early to Middle Miocene ( Awamoan to Lillburnian , 19–16 mya). In Europe, perching birds are not too uncommon in the fossil record from the Oligocene onward, belonging to several lineages: That suboscines expanded much beyond their region of origin

515-523: A "Rocky Mountains ( Colorado )" clade from the southern Rocky Mountains , and a "Pacific" clade from coastal British Columbia , Washington, and southwestern Oregon. There was also a population of the boreal clade in the central Rocky Mountains between the Colorado and transcascade clades. Genetic dating suggests the Pacific clade diverged from the common ancestor of the other clades around three million years ago in

618-400: A Canada jay nest containing a brooding female, three hatchlings, and three warm, engorged winter deer ticks. Because the ticks were too large for the hatchlings to eat, it was hypothesized that the ticks may have served as " hot water bottles ", keeping hatchlings warm when parents were away from the nest. Nestling birds are common prey, being taken more often from nests in trees rather than on

721-461: A clearer picture of passerine origins and evolution that reconciles molecular affinities, the constraints of morphology, and the specifics of the fossil record. The first passerines are now thought to have evolved in the Southern Hemisphere in the late Paleocene or early Eocene , around 50 million years ago. The initial diversification of passerines coincides with the separation of

824-665: A description of the Canada jay in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Canada. He used the French name Le geay brun de Canada and the Latin Garralus canadensis fuscus . Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature . When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for

927-471: A distinct super-family Certhioidea . This list is in taxonomic order, placing related families next to one another. The families listed are those recognised by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC). The order and the division into infraorders, parvorders, and superfamilies follows the phylogenetic analysis published by Carl Oliveros and colleagues in 2019. The relationships between

1030-469: A dozen and other species around five or six. The family Viduidae do not build their own nests, instead, they lay eggs in other birds' nests. The Passeriformes contain several groups of brood parasites such as the viduas , cuckoo-finches , and the cowbirds . The evolutionary history of the passerine families and the relationships among them remained rather mysterious until the late 20th century. In many cases, passerine families were grouped together on

1133-467: A first moult in July or August. The average lifespan of territory-owning Canada jays is eight years; the oldest known Canada jay banded and recaptured in the wild was at least 17 years old. A variety of vocalizations are used and, like other corvids, Canada jays may mimic other bird species, especially predators. Calls include a whistled quee-oo , and various clicks and chuckles. When predators are spotted,

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1236-519: A grey-white head with a darker grey nape . It is one of three members of the genus Perisoreus , a genus more closely related to the magpie genus Cyanopica than to other birds known as jays . The Canada jay itself has nine recognized subspecies . Canada jays live year-round on permanent territories in coniferous forests , surviving in winter months on food cached throughout their territory in warmer periods. The birds form monogamous mating pairs, with pairs accompanied on their territories by

1339-460: A land bridge from c.  30,000  – c.  11,000  YBP, followed by a Holocene sea-level rise that reopened the strait. Post-glacial rebound has continued to raise some sections of the coast. During the last glacial period , enough of the Earth's water became frozen in the great ice sheets covering North America and Europe to cause a drop in sea levels . For thousands of years

1442-624: A national bird for Canada, a designation which the country has never formally recognized. Dubbed the National Bird Project, the organization conducted an online poll inviting Canadians to vote for their favourite bird. The poll closed on 31 August 2016, and a panel of experts convened the following month to review the top five selections: the Canada jay, common loon ( Gavia immer ), snowy owl ( Bubo scandiacus ), Canada goose ( Branta canadensis ) and black-capped chickadee ( Poecile atricapillus ). The project announced on 16 November 2016 that

1545-470: A pair of adults. The role of juveniles is in allofeeding (food sharing) by retrieving caches and bringing food to younger siblings, but this is only allowed by the parents during the post- fledgling period. Until then, parents will drive the other birds away from the nest. This may reduce the frequency of predator-attracting visits to the nest when young are most vulnerable. The benefits of juveniles participating in subsequent brood care may include "lightening

1648-475: A rich diversity of grasses and herbs. There were patches of shrub tundra with isolated refugia of larch ( Larix ) and spruce ( Picea ) forests with birch ( Betula ) and alder ( Alnus ) trees. It has been proposed that the largest and most diverse megafaunal community residing in Beringia at this time could only have been sustained in a highly diverse and productive environment. Analysis at Chukotka on

1751-432: A shingle-like configuration that allows Canada jays to wedge food items easily up into dry, concealed storage locations. Storage may also be assisted by the antibacterial properties of the bark and foliage of boreal tree species. An exception to this general picture may be the well-marked subspecies P. c. obscurus . It lives right down to the coast from Washington to northern California in the absence of cold temperatures or

1854-446: A third juvenile from the previous season. Canada jays adapt to human activity in their territories and are known to approach humans for food, inspiring a list of colloquial names including "lumberjack", "camp robber", and "venison-hawk". The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers the Canada jay a least-concern species , but populations in southern ranges may be affected adversely by global warming . The species

1957-524: A very large area of boreal and subalpine habitats only lightly occupied by humans. Significant human impacts may nevertheless occur through anthropogenic climate warming . Canada jays at the northern edges of their range may benefit from the extension of spruce stands out onto formerly treeless tundra . A study of a declining population at the southern end of the Canada jay's range linked the decline in reproductive success to warmer temperatures in preceding autumns. Such warm temperatures may trigger spoilage of

2060-505: Is cooperative . During the nest-building phase of the breeding season, Canada jay breeding pairs are accompanied by a third, juvenile bird. A 1991 field study in Quebec and Ontario found that approximately 65% of Canada jay trios included a dominant juvenile from the pair's previous breeding season, and approximately 30% of trios included non-dominant juveniles who had left their parents' territory. Occasionally, two nonbreeding juveniles accompany

2163-633: Is a "scatterhoarder", caching thousands of food items during the summer for use the following winter, and enabling the species to remain in boreal and subalpine forests year round. Any food intended for storage is manipulated in the mouth and formed into a bolus that is coated with sticky saliva, adhering to anything it touches. The bolus is stored in bark crevices, under tufts of lichen , or among conifer needles . Cached items can be anything from carrion to bread crumbs. A single Canada jay may hide thousands of pieces of food per year, to later recover them by memory, sometimes months after hiding them. Cached food

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2266-514: Is also found in the northern reaches of the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, the Adirondacks in New York, and New England. The Canada jay may wander north of the breeding range . In winter it travels irregularly to northwestern Nebraska, central Minnesota, southeastern Wisconsin, central Michigan, southern Pennsylvania, central New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Fossil evidence indicates

2369-610: Is around 45 cm (18 in). It weighs about 65 to 70 g (2.3 to 2.5 oz). Adults have medium grey back feathers with a lighter grey underside. Its head is mostly white with a dark grey or black nape and hood, with a short black beak and dark eyes. The long tail is medium grey with lighter tips. The legs and feet are black. The plumage is thick, providing insulation in the bird's cold native habitat. Like most corvids, Canada jays are not sexually dimorphic , but males are slightly larger than females. Juveniles are initially coloured very dark grey all over, gaining adult plumage after

2472-488: Is associated with mythological figures of several First Nations cultures, including Wisakedjak , a benevolent figure whose name was anglicized to Whiskyjack. In 2016, an online poll and expert panel conducted by Canadian Geographic magazine selected the Canada jay as the national bird of Canada, although the designation is not formally recognized. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included

2575-482: Is currently divided into three suborders: Acanthisitti (New Zealand wrens), Tyranni , (suboscines) and Passeri (oscines or songbirds). The Passeri is now subdivided into two major groups recognized now as Corvides and Passerida respectively containing the large superfamilies Corvoidea and Meliphagoidea , as well as minor lineages, and the superfamilies Sylvioidea , Muscicapoidea , and Passeroidea but this arrangement has been found to be oversimplified. Since

2678-429: Is deep in the boreal forest . Male Canada jays choose a nest site in a mature conifer tree; the nests are found most commonly in black spruce, with white spruce and balsam fir ( Abies balsamea ) also used, in Ontario and Quebec. With the male taking a lead role in construction, nests are constructed with brittle dead twigs pulled off of trees, as well as bark strips and lichens . The cup is just large enough to contain

2781-554: Is inhibited by the presence of Steller's jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) and Canada jays from adjacent territories, which follow resident Canada jays to steal cached food. Canada jays carry large food items to distant cache sites for storage more often than small food items. To prevent theft, they also tend to carry valuable food items further from the source when caching in the company of one or more Canada jays. Scatterhoarding discourages pilferage by competitors, while increased cache density leads to increased thievery. In southern portions of

2884-887: Is more scant before the Pleistocene, from which several still-existing families are documented. Apart from the indeterminable MACN -SC-1411 (Pinturas Early/Middle Miocene of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina), an extinct lineage of perching birds has been described from the Late Miocene of California, United States: the Palaeoscinidae with the single genus Palaeoscinis . "Palaeostruthus" eurius (Pliocene of Florida) probably belongs to an extant family, most likely passeroidean . Acanthisitti – New Zealand wrens (1 family containing 7 species, only 2 extant) Tyranni – suboscines (16 families containing 1,356 species) Passeri – oscines (125 families containing 5,158 species) The Passeriformes

2987-432: Is most rapid from the fourth through the tenth day following hatching, during which time the female begins to participate in foraging . The parents carry food to the nest in their throats. The accompanying nonbreeding third bird does not help with feeding during this period but is driven away by the parents if it approaches the nest. Food is a dark brown, viscous paste containing primarily arthropods . Young Canada jays leave

3090-697: Is only in our bravery, resilience and commitments to one another that we can find growth", Sinclair said. The Canada jay readily capitalizes on novel food sources, including taking advantage of man-made sources of food. To the frustration of trappers using baits to catch fur-bearing animals or early travelers trying to protect their winter food supplies, and to the delight of campers , bold Canada jays are known to approach humans for treats and to steal from unattended food stores. Canada jays do not change their feeding behaviour if watched by people; if they are able to link humans with food, they will not forget. A nesting female that had become accustomed to being fed by humans

3193-405: Is performed only by the female and lasts an average of 18.5 days. The female is fed on the nest by her partner, rarely moving from the nest during incubation and for several days after hatching. Canada jay young are altricial . For the first three to four days after hatching, the female remains on the nest; when the male arrives with food, both parents help in feeding the nestlings. Nestling growth

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3296-523: Is proven by several fossils from Germany such as a presumed broadbill ( Eurylaimidae ) humerus fragment from the Early Miocene (roughly 20 mya) of Wintershof , Germany, the Late Oligocene carpometacarpus from France listed above, and Wieslochia , among others. Extant Passeri super-families were quite distinct by that time and are known since about 12–13 mya when modern genera were present in

3399-474: Is sometimes used to feed nestlings and fledglings. When exploiting distant food sources found in clearings, Canada jays were observed temporarily concentrating their caches in an arboreal site along the edge of a black spruce forest in interior Alaska. This allowed a high rate of caching in the short term and reduced the jay's risk of predation. A subsequent recaching stage occurred, and food items were transferred to widely scattered sites to reduce theft. Caching

3502-442: Is the long-tailed widowbird . The chicks of passerines are altricial : blind, featherless, and helpless when hatched from their eggs. Hence, the chicks require extensive parental care. Most passerines lay colored eggs, in contrast with nonpasserines, most of whose eggs are white except in some ground-nesting groups such as Charadriiformes and nightjars , where camouflage is necessary, and in some parasitic cuckoos , which match

3605-459: Is the short-tailed pygmy tyrant , at 6.5 cm (2.6 in) and 4.2 g (0.15 oz). The foot of a passerine has three toes directed forward and one toe directed backward, called anisodactyl arrangement. The hind toe ( hallux ) is long and joins the leg at approximately the same level as the front toes. This arrangement enables passerine birds to easily perch upright on branches. The toes have no webbing or joining, but in some cotingas ,

3708-545: Is the largest order of birds and among the most diverse clades of terrestrial vertebrates , representing 60% of birds. Passerines are divided into three suborders : Acanthisitti (New Zealand wrens), Tyranni (composed mostly of South American suboscines), and Passeri (oscines or songbirds). Passerines originated in the Southern Hemisphere around 60 million years ago. Most passerines are insectivorous or omnivorous , and eat both insects and fruit or seeds. The terms "passerine" and "Passeriformes" are derived from

3811-682: The Anadyr River ), and Arctodus simus , American badger , American kiang -like equids, Bootherium and Camelops in North America, with the existence of Homotherium being disputed in Late Pleistocene Siberia. The lack of mastodon and Megalonyx has been attributed to their inhabitation of Alaska and the Yukon being limited to interglacials. However, ground sloth eDNA has potentially been recovered from Siberia. The peopling of

3914-652: The Corvida and numerous minor lineages make up songbird diversity today. Extensive biogeographical mixing happens, with northern forms returning to the south, southern forms moving north, and so on. Perching bird osteology , especially of the limb bones, is rather diagnostic. However, the early fossil record is poor because passerines are relatively small, and their delicate bones do not preserve well. Queensland Museum specimens F20688 ( carpometacarpus ) and F24685 ( tibiotarsus ) from Murgon, Queensland , are fossil bone fragments initially assigned to Passeriformes . However,

4017-587: The Last Glacial Maximum , when ice sheets began advancing from 33,000   YBP and reached their maximum limits 26,500   YBP. Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere approximately 19,000   YBP and in Antarctica approximately 14,500 years   YBP, which is consistent with evidence that glacial meltwater was the primary source for an abrupt rise in sea level 14,500   YBP and

4120-535: The Late Pliocene . The boreal clade is genetically diverse, suggesting that Canada jays retreated to multiple areas of milder climate during previous ice ages and recolonized the region in warmer times. In 2018 the common name was changed from grey jay to Canada jay by the American Ornithological Society in a supplement to their Check-list of North American Birds . This change was also made in

4223-581: The Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia, each of the seven stars of the Big Dipper depicted a different bird; the star Eta Ursae Majoris in the night sky was a Canada jay, Mikjaqoqwej . In anishinaabemowin , or the Ojibwe language, the bird is known as gwiingwiishi . "... the whisky jack is revered by indigenous peoples as an omen of good fortune and a warning of danger. Niigaanwewidam Sinclair, an associate professor and acting head of

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4326-622: The North American Plate and Siberian land east of the Chersky Range . At various times, it formed a land bridge referred to as the Bering land bridge , that was up to 1,000 km (620 mi) wide at its greatest extent and which covered an area as large as British Columbia and Alberta together, totaling about 1.6 million km (620,000 sq mi), allowing biological dispersal to occur between Asia and North America. Today,

4429-621: The Old World warblers and Old World babblers have turned out to be paraphyletic and are being rearranged. Several taxa turned out to represent highly distinct lineages, so new families had to be established, some of theirs – like the stitchbird of New Zealand and the Eurasian bearded reedling – monotypic with only one living species. In the Passeri alone, a number of minor lineages will eventually be recognized as distinct superfamilies. For example,

4532-631: The crows , do not sound musical to human beings. Some, such as the lyrebird , are accomplished mimics. The New Zealand wrens are tiny birds restricted to New Zealand , at least in modern times; they were long placed in Passeri. Most passerines are smaller than typical members of other avian orders. The heaviest and altogether largest passerines are the thick-billed raven and the larger races of common raven , each exceeding 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) and 70 cm (28 in). The superb lyrebird and some birds-of-paradise , due to very long tails or tail coverts, are longer overall. The smallest passerine

4635-445: The kinglets constitute a single genus with less than 10 species today but seem to have been among the first perching bird lineages to diverge as the group spread across Eurasia. No particularly close relatives of theirs have been found among comprehensive studies of the living Passeri, though they might be fairly close to some little-studied tropical Asian groups. Nuthatches , wrens , and their closest relatives are currently grouped in

4738-503: The scientific name of the house sparrow , Passer domesticus , and ultimately from the Latin term passer , which refers to sparrows and similar small birds. The order is divided into three suborders, Tyranni (suboscines), Passeri (oscines or songbirds), and the basal Acanthisitti . Oscines have the best control of their syrinx muscles among birds, producing a wide range of songs and other vocalizations, though some of them, such as

4841-402: The superb lyrebird has 16, and several spinetails in the family Furnariidae have 10, 8, or even 6, as is the case of Des Murs's wiretail . Species adapted to tree trunk climbing such as treecreepers and woodcreeper have stiff tail feathers that are used as props during climbing. Extremely long tails used as sexual ornaments are shown by species in different families. A well-known example

4944-458: The twelfth edition , he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the Canada jay. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Corvus canadensis and cited Brisson's work. William John Swainson named it Dysornithia brachyrhyncha in 1831. French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte assigned the Canada jay to the genus Perisoreus in 1838 in A geographical and comparative list of

5047-762: The Americas began when Paleolithic hunter-gatherers ( Paleo-Indians ) entered North America from the North Asian Mammoth steppe via the Beringia land bridge , which had formed between northeastern Siberia and western Alaska due to the lowering of sea level during the Last Glacial Maximum (26,000 to 19,000 years ago). These populations expanded south of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and spread rapidly southward, occupying both North and South America by 12,000 to 14,000 years ago. The earliest populations in

5150-565: The Americas sometime after 16,500 years Before Present (YBP). This would have occurred as the American glaciers blocking the way southward melted, but before the bridge was covered by the sea about 11,000 YBP. The term Beringia was coined by the Swedish botanist Eric Hultén in 1937, from the Danish-born Russian explorer Vitus Bering . During the ice ages, Beringia, like most of Siberia and all of North and Northeast China ,

5253-487: The Americas, before roughly 10,000 years ago, are known as Paleo-Indians . Indigenous peoples of the Americas have been linked to Siberian populations by proposed linguistic factors , the distribution of blood types , and in genetic composition as reflected by molecular data, such as DNA . Around 3,000 years ago, the progenitors of the Yupik peoples settled along both sides of the straits. The governments of Russia and

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5356-537: The Canada jay are thought to have diverged from their Old World relatives and crossed Beringia into North America. A 2012 genetic study revealed four clades across its range: a widespread "boreal" or " taiga " clade ranging from Alaska to Newfoundland and ranging south to the Black Hills of South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah in the west and New England in the east, a "transcascade" clade in eastern Washington and Oregon and ranging into Alberta and Montana ,

5459-775: The Canada jay was found as far south as Tennessee during the last ice age . The vast majority of Canada jays live where there is a strong presence of black spruce ( Picea mariana ), white spruce ( P. glauca ), Engelmann spruce ( P. engelmannii ), jack pine ( Pinus banksiana ), or lodgepole pine ( P. contorta ). Canada jays do not inhabit the snowy, coniferous, and therefore seemingly appropriate Sierra Nevada of California where no spruce occur. Nor do Canada jays live in lower elevations of coastal Alaska or British Columbia dominated by Sitka spruce ( Picea sitchensis ). The key habitat requirements may be sufficiently cold temperatures to ensure successful storage of perishable food and tree bark with sufficiently pliable scales arranged in

5562-594: The Canada jay was selected as the winner of the contest. Organizers hoped for the Canadian government to formally recognize the result as part of Canada's sesquicentennial celebrations in 2017; the Department of Canadian Heritage responded that no new official symbol proposals were being considered at the time. Canada jays are classified as least concern (LC) according to the IUCN Red List , having stable populations over

5665-672: The Canada jay's range, food is not cached during summer because of the chance of spoilage and the reduced need for winter stores. Several bird species prey on Canada jays, including great grey owls ( Strix nebulosa ), northern hawk-owls ( Surnia ulula ), and Mexican spotted owls ( Strix occidentalis lucida ). Canada jay remains have been recovered from the lairs of fisher ( Pekania pennanti ) and American marten ( Martes americana ). Red squirrels ( Tamiasciurus hudsonicus ) eat Canada jay eggs. Canada jays alert each other to threats by whistling alarm notes, screaming, chattering, or imitating and/or mobbing predators. Found throughout Canada,

5768-514: The Canada jay, which selects food on the basis of profitability to maximize caloric intake. Increased handling, searching, or recognition times for a preferred food item lowers its profitability. Canada jays wrench, twist, and tug food apart, unlike other birds known as jays (such as the blue jay , Cyanocitta cristata ), which grasp and hammer their food. Canada jays commonly carry large food items to nearby trees to eat or process for storage, possibly as defense against large scavengers. The Canada jay

5871-485: The Last Glacial Maximum. This was followed by a single population of modern wolves expanding out of their Beringia refuge to repopulate the wolf's former range, replacing the remaining Late Pleistocene wolf populations across Eurasia and North America. The extinct pine species Pinus matthewsii has been described from Pliocene sediments in the Yukon areas of the refugium. The existence of fauna endemic to

5974-579: The Pacific Northwest. Carrion , fungi , fruits such as chokecherry ( Prunus virginiana ), and seeds are also eaten. They've been known to use bird feeders provided by humans. Two Canada jays were seen eating slime mold ( Fuligo septica ) near Kennedy Hot Springs in the Glacier Peak Wilderness , Washington. This was the first report of any bird consuming slime mold in the field. Risk and energy expenditure are factors in food selection for

6077-518: The Siberian edge of the land bridge indicated that from c.  57,000  – c.  15,000  YBP (MIS 3 to MIS 2) the environment was wetter and colder than the steppe–tundra to the east and west, with warming in parts of Beringia from c.  15,000  YBP. These changes provided the most likely explanation for mammal migrations after c.  15,000  YBP, as the warming provided increased forage for browsers and mixed feeders. At

6180-884: The United States announced a plan to formally establish "a transboundary area of shared Beringian heritage". Among other things this agreement would establish close ties between the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve and the Cape Krusenstern National Monument in the United States and Beringia National Park in Russia. Biogeographical evidence demonstrates previous connections between North America and Asia. Similar dinosaur fossils occur both in Asia and in North America . The dinosaur Saurolophus

6283-600: The Yukon where it was blocked by the Wisconsin glaciation . Therefore, the flora and fauna of Beringia were more related to those of Eurasia rather than North America. Beringia received more moisture and intermittent maritime cloud cover from the north Pacific Ocean than the rest of the Mammoth steppe, including the dry environments on either side of it. This moisture supported a shrub-tundra habitat that provided an ecological refugium for plants and animals. In East Beringia 35,000 YBP,

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6386-581: The Yukon. In the driest and coldest periods of the Late Pleistocene, and possibly during the entire Pleistocene, moisture occurred along a north–south gradient with the south receiving the most cloud cover and moisture due to the air-flow from the North Pacific. In the Late Pleistocene, Beringia was a mosaic of biological communities. Commencing from c.  57,000  YBP ( MIS 3), steppe–tundra vegetation dominated large parts of Beringia with

6489-545: The basis of morphological similarities that, it is now believed, are the result of convergent evolution , not a close genetic relationship. For example, the wrens of the Americas and Eurasia , those of Australia , and those of New Zealand look superficially similar and behave in similar ways, yet belong to three far-flung branches of the passerine family tree; they are as unrelated as it is possible to be while remaining Passeriformes. Advances in molecular biology and improved paleobiogeographical data gradually are revealing

6592-652: The beginning of the Holocene , some mesic habitat -adapted species left the refugium and spread westward into what had become tundra-vegetated northern Asia and eastward into northern North America. The latest emergence of the land bridge was c.  70,000 years ago. However, from c.  24,000  – c.  13,000  YBP the Laurentide Ice Sheet fused with the Cordilleran Ice Sheet , which blocked gene flow between Beringia (and Eurasia) and continental North America. The Yukon corridor opened between

6695-412: The bird announces a series of harsh clicks to signal a threat on the ground, or a series of repeated whistles to indicate a predator in the air. The Canada jay's range spans across northern North America, from northern Alaska east to Newfoundland and Labrador, and south to northern California, Idaho, Utah, east-central Arizona, north-central New Mexico, central Colorado, and southwestern South Dakota. It

6798-484: The bird is popularly known by several colloquial names. One is "whisky jack", a variation on the name of Wisakedjak , a benevolent trickster and cultural hero in Cree , Algonquin , and Menominee mythologies . Alternate spellings for this name include wesakechak , wiskedjak , whiskachon , and wisakadjak . The Tlingit people of northwestern North America know it as kooyéix or taatl'eeshdéi , "camp robber". According to

6901-403: The bird would be done to them. A folk tale circulated about a man who plucked a gorbey of its feathers and woke up the next morning having lost all his hair. Although the story was widespread in the early to mid-20th century, it does not appear to have been extant in 1902. In January 2015, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society 's magazine, Canadian Geographic , announced a project to select

7004-450: The birds of Europe and North America , along with the Siberian jay , P. infaustus . The Canada jay belongs to the crow and jay family Corvidae . However, it and the other members of its genus are not closely related to other birds known as jays; they are instead close to the genus Cyanopica , which contains the azure-winged magpie . Its relatives are native to Eurasia, and ancestors of

7107-441: The birds prefer preying on nests in open forest with high prominence of jack pine, and greater rates of predation in riparian forest strips and green-tree retention stands versus clearcuts . This may be due to increased availability of perch sites for avian predators such as the Canada jay. Canada jays are suspected but not proven to prey on nests of the threatened marbled murrelet ( Brachyramphus marmoratus ) in coastal areas of

7210-511: The bridge was finally inundated around 11,000 YBP. The fossil evidence from many continents points to the extinction of large animals, termed Pleistocene megafauna , near the end of the last glaciation. During the Ice Age a vast, cold and dry Mammoth steppe stretched from the arctic islands southwards to China, and from Spain eastwards across Eurasia and over the Bering land bridge into Alaska and

7313-421: The climate was warmer and wetter. The environmental conditions were not homogenous in Beringia. Recent stable isotope studies of woolly mammoth bone collagen demonstrate that western Beringia ( Siberia ) was colder and drier than eastern Beringia ( Alaska and Yukon ), which was more ecologically diverse. Grey wolves suffered a species-wide population bottleneck (reduction) approximately 25,000 YBP during

7416-502: The corvoidean and basal songbirds. The modern diversity of Passerida genera is known mostly from the Late Miocene onward and into the Pliocene (about 10–2 mya). Pleistocene and early Holocene lagerstätten (<1.8 mya) yield numerous extant species, and many yield almost nothing but extant species or their chronospecies and paleosubspecies. In the Americas , the fossil record

7519-510: The department of native studies at the University of Manitoba, explained why the mischievous yet wise grey jay is important to the Anishinaabe people. "To my people, the Anishinaabe, she is Gwiingwiishi", Sinclair said in a post published by Canadian Geographic magazine. "Gwiingwiishi is a great, wise teacher, and there is an old story that tells of her abilities to give gifts... Her lesson? That it

7622-540: The dry beds of the English Channel and North Sea , and the dry bed of the South China Sea linked Sumatra , Java , and Borneo to Indochina . The last glacial period , commonly referred to as the "Ice Age", spanned 125,000 –14,500   YBP and was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age , which occurred during the last years of the Pleistocene era. The Ice Age reached its peak during

7725-404: The families in the suborder Tyranni (suboscines) were all well determined but some of the nodes in Passeri (oscines or songbirds) were unclear owing to the rapid splitting of the lineages. Infraorder Eurylaimides : Old World suboscines Infraorder Tyrannides : New World suboscines Parvorder Furnariida Parvorder Tyrannida Relationships between living Passeriformes families based on

7828-400: The female and her eggs, measuring about 3 in (76 mm) wide and 2 in (51 mm) deep. Insulation is provided by cocoons of the forest tent caterpillar ( Malacosoma disstria ) filling the interstitial spaces of the nest, and feathers used to line the cup. Nests are usually built on the southwestern side of a tree for solar warming and are usually less than one nest diameter from

7931-587: The globe. Today, the average water depth of the Bering Strait is 40–50 m (130–160 ft); therefore the land bridge opened when the sea level dropped more than 50 m (160 ft) below the current level. A reconstruction of the sea-level history of the region indicated that a seaway existed from c.  135,000  – c.  70,000  YBP, a land bridge from c.  70,000  – c.  60,000  YBP, an intermittent connection from c.  60,000  – c.  30,000  YBP,

8034-454: The ground. Canada jays find them by moving from perch to perch and scanning surroundings. Avian nest predation by Canada jays is not necessarily higher in fragmented versus unfragmented forest. Evidence from studies in the Pacific Northwest suggest a moderate increase in nest predation in logged plots adjacent to mature conifer forest, which is the Canada jay's preferred habitat. Studies of nest predation by Canada jays in Quebec have shown that

8137-569: The ice mass balance, leading to global sea-level fluctuations were viewed as the cause of the Bering land bridge. In 1937, Eric Hultén proposed that around the Aleutians and the Bering Strait region were tundra plants that had originally dispersed from a now-submerged plain between Alaska and Chukotka, which he named Beringia after Vitus Bering who had sailed into the strait in 1728. The American arctic geologist David Hopkins redefined Beringia to include portions of Alaska and Northeast Asia. Beringia

8240-507: The load" for the breeding pair, which may possibly increase longevity, reducing the probability of starvation of nestlings, and detecting and mobbing predators near the nest. Dominant juveniles may eventually inherit the natal territory and breed, while unrelated juveniles may eventually fill a vacancy nearby or form a new breeding pair on previously unoccupied ground. Breeding Canada jays build nests and lay eggs in March or even February, when snow

8343-649: The material is too fragmentary and their affinities have been questioned. Several more recent fossils from the Oligocene of Europe, such as Wieslochia , Jamna , Resoviaornis , and Crosnoornis , are more complete and definitely represent early passeriforms, and have been found to belong to a variety of modern and extinct lineages. From the Bathans Formation at the Manuherikia River in Otago , New Zealand, MNZ S42815 (a distal right tarsometatarsus of

8446-524: The mid-2000s, studies have investigated the phylogeny of the Passeriformes and found that many families from Australasia traditionally included in the Corvoidea actually represent more basal lineages within oscines. Likewise, the traditional three-superfamily arrangement within the Passeri has turned out to be far more complex and will require changes in classification. Major " wastebin " families such as

8549-417: The nest between 22 and 24 days after hatching, after which the third bird begins to participate in foraging and feeding. Natal dispersal distance for the Canada jay is a median of 0.0 km for males, 2.8 km (1.7 mi) for females, and a maximum distance of 11.3 km (7.0 mi) for males and females. After 55 to 65 days, juveniles reach full adult measurements and battle among themselves until

8652-525: The northern arctic areas experienced temperatures 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) degrees warmer than today but the southern sub-Arctic regions were 2 °C (4 °F) degrees cooler. During the LGM 22,000 YBP the average summer temperature was 3–5 °C (5–9 °F) degrees cooler than today, with variations of 2.9 °C (5.2 °F) degrees cooler on the Seward Peninsula to 7.5 °C (13.5 °F) cooler in

8755-401: The online list of world birds maintained on behalf of the International Ornithologists' Union by Frank Gill and David Donsker. Nine subspecies are recognized: Two additional subspecies were formerly recognized: The Canada jay is a relatively large songbird , though smaller than other jays. A typical adult Canada jay is between 25 and 33 cm (9.8 and 13.0 in) long. Its wingspan

8858-524: The only land that is visible from the central part of the Bering land bridge are the Diomede Islands , the Pribilof Islands of St. Paul and St. George, St. Lawrence Island , St. Matthew Island , and King Island . It is believed that a small human population of at most a few thousand arrived in Beringia from eastern Siberia during the Last Glacial Maximum before expanding into the settlement of

8961-678: The origin of these wolves in eastern Beringia during the Middle Pleistocene . Fossil evidence also indicates an exchange of primates and plants between North America and Asia around 55.8 million years ago. 20 million years ago, evidence in North America shows the last natural interchange of mammalian species. Some, like the ancient saber-toothed cats , have a recurring geographical range: Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America. The pattern of bidirectional flow of biota has been asymmetric, with more plants, animals, and fungi generally migrating from Asia to North America than vice versa throughout

9064-447: The passerine host's egg. The vinous-throated parrotbill has two egg colors, white and blue, to deter the brood parasitic common cuckoo . Clutches vary considerably in size: some larger passerines of Australia such as lyrebirds and scrub-robins lay only a single egg, most smaller passerines in warmer climates lay between two and five, while in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, hole-nesting species like tits can lay up to

9167-810: The perishable food items stored by Canada jays upon which success of late winter nesting partly depends. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from Perisoreus canadensis . United States Department of Agriculture . Passerine and see text A passerine ( / ˈ p æ s ə r aɪ n / ) is any bird of the order Passeriformes ( / ˈ p æ s ə r ɪ f ɔːr m iː z / ; from Latin passer 'sparrow' and formis '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds , passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their toes (three pointing forward and one back), which facilitates perching. With more than 140 families and some 6,500 identified species, Passeriformes

9270-906: The phylogenetic analysis of Oliveros et al (2019). Some terminals have been renamed to reflect families recognised by the IOC but not in that study. The IOC families Alcippeidae and Teretistridae were not sampled in this study. Acanthisittidae (New Zealand wrens) Eurylaimidae (eurylaimid broadbills) Philepittidae (asites) Calyptomenidae (African and green broadbills) Pittidae (pittas) Sapayoidae (sapayoa) Melanopareiidae (crescent chests) Conopophagidae (gnateaters) Thamnophilidae (antbirds) Grallariidae (antpittas) Rhinocryptidae (tapaculos) Formicariidae (antthrushes) Scleruridae (leaftossers) Dendrocolaptidae (woodcreepers) Furnariidae (ovenbirds) Pipridae (manakins) Cotingidae (cotingas) Tityridae (tityras, becards) Beringia The area includes land lying on

9373-405: The putatively necessary tree species. The Canada jay typically breeds at two years of age. Monogamous pairs remain together for life, though a bird will pair up with a new partner if it is widowed. Breeding takes place during March and April, depending on latitude, in permanent, all-purpose territories . Second broods are not attempted, perhaps allowing greater time for food storage. Breeding

9476-463: The receding ice sheets c.  13,000  YBP, and this once again allowed gene flow between Eurasia and continental North America until the land bridge was finally closed by rising sea levels c.  10,000  YBP. During the Holocene, many mesic-adapted species left the refugium and spread eastward and westward, while at the same time the forest-adapted species spread with the forests up from

9579-490: The respective Siberian and North American portions of Beringia has led to the 'Beringian Gap' hypothesis, wherein an unconfirmed geographic factor blocked migration across the land bridge when it emerged. Beringia did not block the movement of most dry steppe-adapted large species such as saiga antelope, woolly mammoth, and caballid horses. Notable restricted fauna include the woolly rhino in Siberia (which went no further east than

9682-632: The sea floors of many interglacial shallow seas were exposed, including those of the Bering Strait , the Chukchi Sea to the north, and the Bering Sea to the south. Other land bridges around the world have emerged and disappeared in the same way. Around 14,000 years ago, mainland Australia was linked to both New Guinea and Tasmania , the British Isles became an extension of continental Europe via

9785-509: The second and third toes are united at their basal third. The leg of passerine birds contains an additional special adaptation for perching. A tendon in the rear of the leg running from the underside of the toes to the muscle behind the tibiotarsus will automatically be pulled and tighten when the leg bends, causing the foot to curl and become stiff when the bird lands on a branch. This enables passerines to sleep while perching without falling off. Most passerine birds have 12 tail feathers but

9888-607: The south. The arid-adapted species were reduced to minor habitats or became extinct. Beringia constantly transformed its ecosystem as the changing climate affected the environment, determining which plants and animals were able to survive. The land mass could be a barrier as well as a bridge: during colder periods, glaciers advanced and precipitation levels dropped. During warmer intervals, clouds, rain and snow altered soils and drainage patterns. Fossil remains show that spruce , birch and poplar once grew beyond their northernmost range today, indicating that there were periods when

9991-911: The southern continents in the early Eocene . The New Zealand wrens are the first to become isolated in Zealandia , and the second split involved the origin of the Tyranni in South America and the Passeri in the Australian continent . The Passeri experienced a great radiation of forms in Australia. A major branch of the Passeri, the parvorder Passerida , dispersed into Eurasia and Africa about 40 million years ago, where they experienced further radiation of new lineages. This eventually led to three major Passerida lineages comprising about 4,000 species, which in addition to

10094-527: The trunk. Nest height is typically 8 to 30 ft (2.4 to 9.1 m) above the ground. The average height of 264 nests surveyed in Algonquin Provincial Park was 16 ± 9.2 ft (4.9 ± 2.8 m) above ground. A clutch consists of 2 to 5 light green-grey eggs with darker spots. The mean clutch sizes of Canada jays in Algonquin Provincial Park and La Verendrye Provincial Park were 3.03 and 3.18 eggs, respectively. Incubation

10197-641: Was 85% for juveniles who left the parents' territory between fledging in June to approximately mid-October. From fall to the following breeding season in March, further juvenile mortality was 50%. Territory-holding adult Canada jays experienced low mortality rates (15.1 and 18.2% for males and females, respectively). The oldest known Canada jay recaptured in the wild was at least 17 years old. Canada jays are omnivorous . They hunt such prey as arthropods, worms, small mammals including rodents, shrews, and juvenile bats, eggs, and nestling birds, and have even been recorded taking

10300-512: Was found in both Mongolia and western North America. Relatives of Troodon , Triceratops , and Tyrannosaurus rex all came from Asia. The earliest Canis lupus specimen was a fossil tooth discovered at Old Crow, Yukon , Canada. The specimen was found in sediment dated 1 million YBP, however the geological attribution of this sediment is questioned. Slightly younger specimens were discovered at Cripple Creek Sump, Fairbanks , Alaska, in strata dated 810,000 YBP. Both discoveries point to

10403-630: Was later regarded as extending from the Verkhoyansk Mountains in the west to the Mackenzie River in the east. The distribution of plants in the genera Erythranthe and Pinus are good examples of this, as very similar genera members are found in Asia and the Americas. During the Pleistocene epoch, global cooling led periodically to the expansion of glaciers and the lowering of sea levels. This created land connections in various regions around

10506-456: Was not glaciated because snowfall was very light . The remains of Late Pleistocene mammals that had been discovered on the Aleutians and islands in the Bering Sea at the close of the nineteenth century indicated that a past land connection might lie beneath the shallow waters between Alaska and Chukotka . The underlying mechanism was first thought to be tectonics, but by 1930 changes in

10609-786: Was reportedly able to be enticed to leave the nest during incubation and brooding. This behaviour has inspired a number of nicknames for the Canada jay, including "lumberjack", "meat-bird", "venison-hawk", "moose-bird", and "gorby", the last two popular in the northeastern United States. The origin of "gorby", also spelt "gorbey", is unclear but possibly derived from gorb , which in Scottish Gaelic or Irish means "glutton" or "greedy (animal)" or in Scots or northern English "fledgling bird". Superstition in Maine and New Brunswick relates how woodsmen would not harm gorbeys, believing that whatever they inflicted on

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