White-Throated Magpie-Jay

White-Throated Magpie-Jay

Calocitta formosa

Silhouette: Peileppe · PhyloPic

Daily sighting probability Insufficient data
at Poás Volcano National Park
1 Verified sightings at Poás Volcano National Park From 2019 to 2026
6,776 Verified sightings across all 21 parks From 2019 to 2026
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted during daytime hours (6am–6pm)

About the White-Throated Magpie-Jay

The white-throated magpie-jay (Cyanocorax formosus) is a large Central American species of magpie-jay. It ranges in Pacific-slope thorn forest from Jalisco, Mexico, to Northern Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Magpie-jays are noisy, gregarious birds, often traveling in easy-to-find flocks, mobbing their observers.

The white-throated magpie-jay was formally described in 1827 by the English naturalist William Swainson from a specimen that had been collected by the naturalist William Bullock in Temascaltepec, Mexico. Swainson coined the binomial name Pica formosa. The specific epithet is from the Latin formosus meaning "beautiful". The white-throated magpie-jay and the black-throated magpie-jay were formerly placed in their own genus Calocitta. When molecular phylogenetic studies found that the genus Cyanocorax was paraphyletic relative to Calocitta, the two species were subsumed into Cyanocorax to resolve the paraphyly.

Three subspecies are recognised: C. f. formosus (Swainson, 1827) – Colima, Michoacán and Puebla south to Oaxaca (southwest Mexico) C. f. azureus (Nelson, 1897) – Oaxaca and Chiapas (southeast Mexico) and west Guatemala C. f. pompatus (Bangs, 1914) – east Chiapas... Wikipedia →

Global Distribution

Warmer areas are where this animal is recorded most often.

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Rincón de la Vieja National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~70%
2 Santa Rosa National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~50%
3 Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~40%
4 Las Baulas Marine National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~30%
5 Ostional Wildlife Refuge 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~30%
6 Masaya Volcano National Park 🇳🇮 Nicaragua
~30%
7 Palo Verde National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~20%
8 Cañón del Sumidero National Park 🇲🇽 Mexico
~20%
9 El Triunfo 🇲🇽 Mexico
~20%
10 Carara National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~10%
11 Tenorio Volcano National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~10%
12 Arenal Volcano National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~10%
13 Tapantí-Macizo de la Muerte National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~10%
14 Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
<5%
15 Poás Volcano National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Insufficient data
16 Corcovado National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Insufficient data
17 La Tigra National Park 🇭🇳 Honduras
Insufficient data
18 Marino Ballena National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Insufficient data
19 Manuel Antonio National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Insufficient data
20 Tortuguero National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Insufficient data
21 Braulio Carrillo National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Insufficient data
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