Brown Jay (Cyanocorax morio cyanogenys)

23 January 2009, Rancho Naturalista, Costa Rica This large species occurs in two color morphs. This is the "white-tipped" morph in which the underparts are largely white and the tail-feathers broadly tipped with white. In parts of Mexico, both morphs overlap and earlier authors thought they represented two separate species of which this would have been called the "White-tipped Brown Jay (P. mexicanus). It is now known that these two types are not even valid subspecies (Selander 1959). This is the southernmost race C. m. cyanogneys which is medium-sized and which always shows white-tipped tail feathers. Photography was hampered by rain and poor light. Panasonic Lumix LZ5 / Nikon FieldScope 3 / 30X WA hand-held (no adapter) Reference: Selander, R. K. 1959. Polymorphism in Mexican brown jays. Auk 76:385-417. http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v076n04/p0385-p0417.pdf