Island Scrub-jay
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[Photo] Island Scrub Jay - USGS photo by Brad Bergstrom

The Island Scrub-jay (Aphelocoma insularis) or Island Jay is one of the species of Aphelocoma (scrub-jays) native to North America and is endemic to Santa Cruz Island off the coast of Southern California. It is closely related to the California Scrub-jay - the coastal Western Scrub-jays found on the adjacent mainland (Rice et al. 2003) - but differs in being larger, more brightly colored, and having a markedly stouter bill. The large bill size is related to its diet, incorporating the thick-shelled acorns of the Island Oak (Quercus tomentella).

Santa Cruz Island is run as a preserve, partly by The Nature Conservancy and partly by Channel Islands National Park. The Island Jay can often be seen right at Prisoner's Cove, where many of the boats visiting the Island drop off and pick up passengers. This species is plentiful; it is classed as near-threatened by the IUCN mainly to reflect that a disaster, disease, or invasive species could quickly kill off the thriving population as it is limited to a single island. The Island Scrub-jay is not known to have occurred anywhere else historically, and no fossil remains have been found on the well-researched neighboring islands (Curry & Delaney 2002).

Etymology
Aphelocoma, from Latinized Ancient Greek aphelo-, "soft" (Ancient Greek: apalos, απαλ????) + Latin coma "hair", in reference to the smooth plumage of birds of this genus compared to other corvids. insularis, Latin: "from an island".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Scrub-jay

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