Urocissa

Urocissa is a genus of birds in the Corvidae, a family that contains the crows, jays, and magpies.

Urocissa
Urocissa caerulea
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Corvidae
Subfamily:	Cissinae
Genus:	Urocissa Cabanis, 1851
Type species
Urocissa erythrorhyncha Cabanis, 1850
Species
Urocissa caerulea Urocissa erythroryncha Urocissa flavirostris Urocissa whiteheadi Urocissa ornata

The genus was established by German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1850.^[1][a] The type species was subsequently designated as the red-billed blue magpie (Urocissa erythroryncha).^[4] The name Urocissa combines the Ancient Greek oura meaning "tail" and kissa meaning "magpie" .^[5]

Species

The genus contains five species:^[6]

Genus Urocissa – Cabanis, 1851 – five species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Taiwan blue magpie	Urocissa caerulea Gould, 1863	Taiwan	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Red-billed blue magpie	Urocissa erythroryncha (Boddaert, 1783) Five subspecies U. e. occipitalis (Blyth, 1846) U. e. magnirostris (Blyth, 1846) U. e. alticola Birckhead, 1938 U. e. brevivexilla R. Swinhoe, 1874 U. e. erythroryncha (Boddaert, 1783)	Western Himalayas eastwards into Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and China	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Yellow-billed blue magpie	Urocissa flavirostris (Blyth, 1846)	Indian subcontinent including the lower Himalayas, with a disjunct population in Vietnam	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Sri Lanka blue magpie	Urocissa ornata (Wagler, 1829)	Sri Lanka	Size: Habitat: Diet:	VU
White-winged magpie	Urocissa whiteheadi Ogilvie-Grant, 1899	Southern China, northern Vietnam, and north and central Laos	Size: Habitat: Diet:	EN

Notes

1. Some taxonomists date the publication of Cabanis's description to 1851.^[2][3]