About Cyanocorax cyanomelas (Vieillot, 1818)
The purplish jay, Cyanocorax cyanomelas (Vieillot, 1818), is 37 to 40 cm (15 to 16 in) long and weighs approximately 185 to 220 g (6.5 to 7.8 oz). Both sexes share the same plumage, and both have a feather tuft at the base of the bill. Adult purplish jays have sooty black coloring on the forecrown, sides of the head, throat, and upper breast. Their crown is purplish brown, and this color becomes more purple on the nape. The rest of their body is bluish purple with a brownish wash, and the brightest shade of this color appears on the remiges and uppertail coverts. Their rectrices are dark violet-blue. As the body feathers wear over time, they become browner and create more contrast with the tail than when the feathers are fresh. This species has a dark brown iris, a black bill, and black legs and feet. The purplish jay is distributed in southeastern Peru's Amazonas Department, within the Madre de Dios River basin. Its range extends east across northern and eastern Bolivia into southern Brazil, and from southern Brazil it continues south through Paraguay into the Formosa, Chaco, Corrientes, and Misiones provinces of northern Argentina. In Brazil, the edge of the species' range follows a rough line from southern Rondônia east across southern Mato Grosso and south across most of Mato Grosso do Sul. The purplish jay has also been recorded as a vagrant in Uruguay. It lives in a range of landscape types, including deciduous forest and woodlands, gallery forest, scrublands, and human-managed groves. It can be found at elevations up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in both Brazil and Peru.
