Dwarf jay
species of bird
The dwarf jay (Cyanolyca nanus) is the smallest bird in the family Corvidae, the crows and jays. It is endemic to Mexico, and is classified as Near Threatened by the IUCN Red List.
Taxonomy and systematics
The dwarf jay was originally described in 1847 as Cyanocorax nanus. It was later reassigned to its present genus Cyanolyca that was erected in 1851.
The dwarf jay is monotypic.
Description
The dwarf jay is the smallest jay in the Americas at 20 to 23 cm (7.9 to 9.1 in) long. Four individuals weighed 39 to 41.4 g (1.4 to 1.5 oz). The sexes have the same plumage though females tend to be duller than males. Adults have a black mask from the lores and chin to the cheeks and ear coverts. They have blue crown with a thin paler blue stripe separating it from the mask.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q763058. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1847 and 1851.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dwarf jay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.