NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Curl-crested Jay
Cyanocorax cristatellus (Temminck, 1823)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The curl-crested jay (Cyanocorax cristatellus) is a species of jay native to South America. This New World jay is a beautiful and large (35 cm/14 in overall) bird with predominantly dark blue back, an almost black head and neck, and snow-white chest and underparts. They have a pronounced curled crest rising from just behind the beak; the crest is on average larger in males, but the sexes are generally quite similar. The voice is a loud, gray, graa, gray-gray-gray, sometimes repeated 8-10 times. They sound similar to crow. Curl-crested jays are native to the cerrados of central and southern and the caatinga of north-eastern Brazil. In the southeast Amazon Basin, curl-crested jay ranges into the upstream headwater regions adjacent to the northwestern cerrado. In the west, the extreme headwaters of the west-flowing Guaporé River on the Brazil-Bolivia are home. For the southeast Amazon, the north-flowing rivers that limit the range are the Tapajós on the west, the Xingu River, then the adjacent drainage to the east, the Araguaia-Tocantins River system. The range continues easterly and southerly through the cerrado.
Wikipedia contributors, Curl-crested jay; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T05:25:33.057736+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Cyanocorax cristatellus (Temminck, 1823)
- Name authority
- (Temminck, 1823)
- Common name
- Curl-crested Jay
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Corvidae
- Genus
- Cyanocorax
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyCorvidae Leach, 1820
- genusCyanocorax F. Boie, 1826
- speciesCyanocorax cristatellus (Temminck, 1823)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Cyanocorax. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| White-naped JayCyanocorax cyanopogon (Wied-M. Neuwied, 1821) | CorvidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Azure-naped JayCyanocorax heilprini Gentry, 1885 | CorvidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| White-tailed JayCyanocorax mystacalis (de Sparre, 1835) | CorvidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Yucatan JayCyanocorax yucatanicus (A. J. C. Dubois, 1875) | CorvidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Violaceous JayCyanocorax violaceus Du Bus de Gisignies, 1847 | CorvidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| White-throated Magpie-JayCyanocorax formosus (Swainson, 1827) | CorvidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Black-chested JayCyanocorax affinis Pelzeln, 1856 | CorvidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Purplish-backed JayCyanocorax beecheii (Vigors, 1829) | CorvidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Cayenne JayCyanocorax cayanus (Linnaeus, 1766) | CorvidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Plush-crested JayCyanocorax chrysops (Vieillot, 1818) | CorvidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Purplish JayCyanocorax cyanomelas (Vieillot, 1818) | CorvidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Tufted JayCyanocorax dickeyi R. T. Moore, 1935 | CorvidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Corvus cristatellus Temminck, 1823 Temminck, 1823 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=559624 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:32NLH. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.