Editing Steller's jay (section)

==Taxonomy==
Steller's jay was [[Species description|formally described]] in 1788 by the German naturalist [[Johann Friedrich Gmelin]] in his revised and expanded edition of [[Carl Linnaeus]]'s ''[[Systema Naturae]]''. He placed it with the crows in the [[genus]] ''[[Corvus]]'' and coined the [[binomial nomenclature|binomial name]] ''Corvus stelleri''.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Gmelin | first=Johann Friedrich | author-link=Johann Friedrich Gmelin| year=1788 | title=Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | edition=13th | volume=1, Part 1 | language=Latin | location=Lipsiae [Leipzig] | publisher=Georg. Emanuel. Beer | page=370 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2896970 }}</ref> Gmelin based his account on "Stellers crow" that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist [[John Latham (ornithologist)|John Latham]] in his book ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. Latham had examined a specimen belonging to the naturalist [[Joseph Banks]] that had been collected in [[Nootka Sound]], [[Vancouver Island]] off the Pacific coast of Canada.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Latham | first=John | author-link=John Latham (ornithologist) | year=1781 | title=A General Synopsis of Birds | volume=1, Part 1 | publisher=Printed for Leigh and Sotheby | location=London | pages=387–388 No. 21 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33727919 }}</ref> The specimen was one of the birds collected on [[James Cook|Captain James Cook's]] [[Third voyage of James Cook|third voyage to the Pacific Ocean]]. During this voyage Cook visited Nootka Sound from 29 March until 26 Apr 1778.<ref>{{ cite journal | last=Stresemann | first=Erwin | author-link=Erwin Stresemann | date=1949 | title=Birds collected in the north Pacific area during Capt. James Cook's last voyage (1778 and 1779) | journal=Ibis | volume=91 | issue=2 | pages=244–255 [248] | doi=10.1111/j.1474-919X.1949.tb02264.x }}</ref> Steller's jay is now placed with the [[blue jay]] in the genus ''[[Cyanocitta]]'' that was introduced in 1845 by the English ornithologist [[Hugh Edwin Strickland|Hugh Strickland]].<ref name=ioc>{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=January 2023 | title=Crows, mudnesters, birds-of-paradise | work=IOC World Bird List Version 13.1 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/crows/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=12 April 2023 }}</ref>

The bird is named after the [[Germany|German]] naturalist [[Georg Wilhelm Steller]], the first European to record them, in 1741.<ref name=CLOO-sj>{{cite web |title=Steller's Jay |url=http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/343/articles/introduction |work=The Birds of North America Online |year=2013 |department=[[Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology]] |publisher=[[Cornell University]] |access-date=6 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130429060012/http://bna.birds.cornell.edu:80/bna/species/343/articles/introduction|archive-date=29 Apr 2013}}</ref><ref name=heevans86>{{cite book |last=Evans |first=Howard Ensign |author-link=Howard Ensign Evans |title=Antæus on Nature |year=1986 |publisher=Collins Harvill |location=London, UK |page=24 |editor=Halpern, Daniel}}</ref>

Thirteen [[subspecies]] are recognised:<ref name=ioc/>
{| class="wikitable "
|-
! Image !! Subspecies !! Distribution
|-
| [[File:Cyanocitta stelleri stelleri, Seattle 1.jpg|120px]] || ''C. s. stelleri'' ([[Johann Friedrich Gmelin|Gmelin, JF]], 1788) || south Alaska and coastal west Canada to northwest Oregon (northwest USA)
|-
|  || ''C. s. carlottae'' [[Wilfred Hudson Osgood|Osgood]], 1901 || [[Haida Gwaii]] (off west Canada)
|-
| [[File:Cyanocitta stelleri -Yosemite-8.jpg|120px]] || ''C. s. frontalis'' ([[Robert Ridgway|Ridgway]], 1873) || central Oregon, east California to central west Nevada (west USA)
|-
| [[File:Cyanocitta stelleri -Big Sur, Central Coast, California, USA-8.jpg|120px]] || ''C. s. carbonacea'' [[Joseph Grinnell|Grinnell]], 1900 || coastal central west California (west USA)
|-
| [[File:Jasper.Diademhaeher.P1033518.jpg|120px]] || ''C. s. annectens'' ([[Spencer Fullerton Baird|Baird, SF]], 1874) || central British Columbia to southeast Alberta (southwest Canada) south to northeast Oregon and northwest Wyoming (northwest USA)
|-
| [[File:Steller's Jay Sandia Peak.jpg|120px]] || ''C. s. macrolopha'' Baird, SF, 1854 || east Nevada to southwest South Dakota (central west USA) south to north Mexico
|-
| [[File:Cyanocitta stelleri diademata, Cruz de Piedra, Durango, Mexico 1.jpg|120px]] || ''C. s. diademata'' ([[Charles Lucien Bonaparte|Bonaparte]], 1850) || northwest Mexico
|-
|  || ''C. s. phillipsi'' Browning, 1993 || mainly [[San Luis Potosí]] (central Mexico)
|-
|  || ''C. s. azteca'' Ridgway, 1899 || central south Mexico
|-
| [[File:Cyanocitta stelleri coronata, Perote, Veracruz, Mexico 1.jpg|120px]] || ''C. s. coronata'' ([[William Swainson|Swainson]], 1827) || southwest, central east, south Mexico and west Guatemala
|-
|  || ''C. s. purpurea'' [[John Warren Aldrich|Aldrich]], 1944 || [[Michoacán]] (southwest Mexico)
|-
|  || ''C. s. restricta'' [[Allan Robert Phillips|Phillips, AR]], 1966 || [[Oaxaca]] (south Mexico)
|-
|  || ''C. s. suavis'' Miller, W & [[Ludlow Griscom|Griscom]], 1925 || Nicaragua and Honduras
|-
|}