Family Crows and Jays (Corvidae)
Least Concern
Siberian Jay (Perisoreus infaustus)
Taxonomy
French: Mésangeai imitateur German: Unglückshäher Spanish: Arrendajo siberiano
Taxonomy:
Corvus infaustus
Linnaeus
, 1758,Europae alpinis sylvis = Sweden
.
Subspecies and Distribution
P. i. infaustus
(Linnaeus, 1758) – Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and NW Russia.
P. i. rogosowi
Sushkin & Stegmann, 1929 – N Russia E (S to 64° N) to W R Lena Basin.
P. i. yakutensis
Buturlin, 1916 – C & E Russia (Siberia from R Yenisey E to Anadyrland).
P. i. ruthenus
Buturlin, 1916 – W Russia (from St Petersburg E to Tomsk, S of rogosowi).
P. i. sibericus
(Boddaert, 1783) – C Russia (C Siberia) and N Mongolia.
P. i. tkachenkoi
Sushkin & Stegmann, 1929 – E part of SC Russia (Yakutsk S to Zhigansk, on R Lena, E to middle Amur and Stanovoy Mts).
P. i. opicus
Bangs, 1913 – E Kazakhstan, NW China (N Xinjiang), SC Russia (Tuva, W & C Altai and W Sayans).
P. i. caudatus
Buturlin, 1913 – NC Mongolia and CS Russia (S Buryatia).
P. i. maritimus
Buturlin, 1915 – E Russia (Amurland, Ussuriland), NE China (NE Heilongjiang) and Sakhalin.
Descriptive notes
25–31 cm; 72–101 g. A drab brownish or greyish, relatively long-tailed forest jay with some rufous in tail and wing; bill short and small, with straight culmen... read more
Voice
Vocabulary quite varied, but all vocalizations rather subdued. Song an insignificant twittering and... read more
Habitat
Boreal forest (taiga zone); favours dense closed-canopy, mature forest of spruce (Picea),... read more
Food and feeding
Omnivorous. Diet includes berries, seeds, various insects and their larvae, notably beetles (Coleoptera) and moths (Lepidoptera), and wide... read more
Breeding
Breeds late Mar to May. Monogamous, with lifelong pair-bond. Solitary nester, but additional bird sometimes present with pair and may help... read more
Movements
Sedentary over most of range. In W, rarely moves S in winter as far as St Petersburg and Moscow... read more
Status and conservation
Not globally threatened. Common to abundant; unobtrusive habits no doubt give false impression of scarcity, but this species, with a range extending across entire length of... read more
Geographical variation complex, with clines in colour tones, greyest in C Siberia and becoming more rufous towards W and again towards E, but tones and extent of rufous in wing vary also from S to N; further, clinal intergradation has created much taxonomic confusion in terms of number of races that should be recognized, various reviews allowing as many as 17 or as few as 4–5#R. Conservative assessment suggests that manteufeli (upper R Severnya Dvina, in NW Russia) be included in nominate; monjerensis (lower R Yenisey to Olenek Basin, in C Siberia) in rogosowi; bungei (NC Siberia between lower R Lena and lower R Kolyma) and sokolnikowi (NE Siberia) in yakutensis; suschkini (Transbaikalia, Russia) in sibericus; varnak (NE China and middle R Amur, in SE Russia) in tkachenkoi; and sakhalinensis (Sakhalin) in maritimus. Name rogosowi appears to have been selected over simultaneously named ostjakorum by First Revisers#R. Nine subspecies currently recognized.