Corvids are renowned for their variable foraging behaviour, and about 20 species in eight genera perch on wild and domestic ungulates to pick ticks on the body of these mammals. Herein I illustrate and briefly comment on the Purplish Jay (Cyanocorax cyanomelas) riding deer and tapir in the Pantanal, Western Brazil. The jay perched on the head or back of the ungulates and searched for ticks, playing the role of a cleaner bird. Deer are rarely reported as hosts or clients of tick-picking birds in the Neotropics. The Purplish Jay is the southernmost Neotropical cleaner corvid reported to date. Given their opportunistic foraging behaviour, a few other Cyanocorax jay species may occasionally play the cleaner role of wild and domestic ungulates. © 2015, Sociedade Brasileira de Ornitologia. All rights reserved.23436536

Sazima I.

English

Repositorio da Producao Cientifica e Intelectual da Unicamp

Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia, 23(4), 365-367
December 2015
INTRODUCTION
Corvids are renowned for their variable foraging 
behaviour, and about 20 species in eight genera ride wild 
and domestic ungulates to pick ticks, scabs, and other 
organic matter on the body of these mammals (Sazima 
2011). In an overview of tick-removing birds in Brazil 
(Sazima 2007), I suggested that species of the genus 
Cyanocorax would be occasional parasite cleaners of wild 
large herbivores or domestic livestock.
METHODS
To test my supposition on the cleaner role of Cyanocorax 
jays, I searched for photos of these corvids perched on 
wild ungulates in photo archives online and found three 
substantiated records of the Purplish Jay (Cyanocorax 
cyanomelas) perched on such ungulates. Herein I illustrate 
this jay perched on deer and tapir in the Pantanal, Western 
Brazil, and briefly comment on its role as a cleaner bird 
of these two ungulates, based on the photographic 
records and correspondence with two colleagues (see 
Acknowledgements).
RESULTS
A Purplish Jay was recorded searching for ticks on 
The Purplish Jay rides wild ungulates to pick food
Ivan Sazima1
1 Museu de Zoologia, Caixa Postal 6109, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, CEP 13083-970, Campinas, SP, Brazil.
1 Corresponding author: isazima@gmail.com
Received on 15 April 2015. Accepted on 29 December 2015.
AbSTRACT: Corvids are renowned for their variable foraging behaviour, and about 20 species in eight genera perch on wild 
and domestic ungulates to pick ticks on the body of these mammals. Herein I illustrate and briefly comment on the Purplish Jay 
(Cyanocorax cyanomelas) riding deer and tapir in the Pantanal, Western Brazil. The jay perched on the head or back of the ungulates 
and searched for ticks, playing the role of a cleaner bird. Deer are rarely reported as hosts or clients of tick-picking birds in the 
Neotropics. The Purplish Jay is the southernmost Neotropical cleaner corvid reported to date. Given their opportunistic foraging 
behaviour, a few other Cyanocorax jay species may occasionally play the cleaner role of wild and domestic ungulates.
KEY-WORDS: Cyanocorax cyanomelas, foraging, cleaning behaviour, Pantanal, Western Brazil.
 
a Gray Brocket Deer (Mazama gouazoubira) on 25 
October 2014 at 16:52 h at the Pouso Alegre Lodge 
(16°30'37"S, 56°44'13"W, 120 m a.s.l.), in the north 
Pantanal of Poconé, Mato Grosso, Western Brazil. The 
jay perched on the deer’s head and picked ticks (and 
possibly scabs and other organic substances) from within 
the ears (Figure 1). During the inspection and pecking, 
the deer appeared oblivious to the bird’s behaviour (B. 
P. S. Campos Neto, pers. comm.). Another record of 
this jay species was made with a camera trap on 23 
November 2011 at 07:25 h in central Pantanal (about 
19°17'S, 55°43'W, 130 m a.s.l.), northwest of Campo 
Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Western Brazil. The 
jay perched on the head of a South American Tapir 
(Tapirus terrestris) resting on an excavation made by 
the Giant Armadillo (Priodontes maximus) (Desbiez 
& Kluyber 2013). The bird appeared alert (Figure 2) 
and presumably searched for ticks, scabs and organic 
substances near or within the ears of the tapir. The last 
record I found of the Purplish Jay on wild ungulates was 
made on 09 September 2010 at the Pouso Alegre Lodge 
(16°30'37"S, 56°44'13"W, 120 m a.s.l.), in the north 
Pantanal near Poconé, Mato Grosso, Western Brazil. 
The bird also rode a brocket deer, identified on the 
photo as the larger Marsh Deer (Blastocerus dichotomus) 
(Murphy 2010). The jay was perched on the back of the 
deer and, besides presumably searching for ticks, it also 
appeared to scan the surroundings for prey flushed by 
the foraging activity of the mammal.
ARTICLE
366
                                                                                                               Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia, 23(4), 2015
The Purplish Jay rides wild ungulates to pick food
Ivan Sazima
FIGURE 1. A Purplish Jay (Cyanocorax cyanomelas) picks ticks, and possibly scabs, from the ears of a Gray Brocket Deer (Mazama gouazoubira) in 
the Pantanal, Western Brazil. Photo: Benedito Pio da Silva Campos Neto.
FIGURE 2. A Purplish Jay (Cyanocorax cyanomelas) searches for food on the head of a South American Tapir (Tapirus terrestris) in the Pantanal, 
Western Brazil. Photo: Projeto Tatu Canastra Pantanal.
367
                                                                                                               Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia, 23(4), 2015                                                                                                                Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia, 23(4), 2015
The Purplish Jay rides wild ungulates to pick food
Ivan Sazima
DISCUSSION
The three records presented herein leave no doubt that 
the Purplish Jay plays the role of a cleaner bird and 
support my assumption that a Cyanocorax species picks 
ticks on wild herbivores, including ungulates (Sazima 
2007). Besides ticks, scabs, wounded tissue and other 
organic matter are additional food sources available on 
the clients of cleaning birds (Sazima & Sazima 2010). 
The bird perching on the head and back of deer (and 
tapir as well) agrees with the behaviour of several 
other corvid species that clean ungulates (Sazima 
2011). The jay inspecting the deer’s head, picking food 
especially from the ears, and the apparent indifference 
or confidence of these ungulates to cleaning are 
behaviours already reported for this interaction type 
with corvids (Dixon 1944, Isenhart & DeSante 1985; 
photos in Sazima 2011). The Purplish Jay adds to the 
list of cleaner birds of the tapir (Peres 1996, Sazima & 
Sazima 2010).
Neotropical deer are rarely reported as clients of 
tick-picking birds (Peres 1996), and the two records of 
the brocket deer add this cervid type to the list of wild 
ungulates attended by birds. I suspect that additional 
deer species will be reported as clients of the Purplish 
Jay, including the Marsh Deer and the Pampas Deer 
(Ozotocerus bezoarticus), as both these deer species occur 
in the Pantanal (Tomas 1995, Tomas et al. 2001, IS 
pers. obs.). Deer seem to be important clients of tick-
picking corvids in the Nearctic, Palaearctic, and even 
Indomalayan realms (Sazima 2011). If my supposition of 
the Marsh and Pampas Deer as clients of the Purplish Jay 
holds true, then the importance of deer to Neotropical 
tick-picking birds will increase. Natural history-oriented 
studies or photographic records (as used here) would 
strengthen or invalidate my suggestion.
The Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica) is 
the northernmost tick-picking bird in the Neotropics 
(Sazima & Sazima 2010), and the Purplish Jay stands 
as the southernmost cleaning New World corvid. As the 
latter bird’s distribution reaches Argentina (Anjos 2009), 
it may extend its cleaning role further southwards. Given 
the opportunistic foraging behaviour of Cyanocorax jays, I 
would expect additional species may occasionally play the 
cleaner role for wild and domestic ungulates. A potential 
candidate is the Plush-crested Jay (Cyanocorax chysops), 
which may forage on the ground and sometimes flocks 
together with the Purplish Jay in the Pantanal (Sazima 
2007, Anjos 2009, Gwynne et al. 2010).
The Brown Jay (Psilorhinus morio) was recently 
recorded picking moths from the fur of the Three-toed 
Sloth (Bradypus variegatus) in Costa Rica (Neam 2015). 
This record supports another suggestion I made about 
jays as cleaners, namely, that these birds may glean 
parasites from arboreal mammals such as sloths (Sazima 
2007). Additionally, this latter record and the present 
paper strengthen the postulation that birds mostly clean 
medium-sized to large herbivores (Sazima & Sazima 
2010, Sazima 2011).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank Marlies Sazima for loving support in the field and 
at home; Benedito Pio da Silva Campos Neto and the 
Projeto Tatu Canastra Pantanal for permission to use the 
photos of the jay on brocket deer and tapir, respectively; 
Benedito Pio da Silva Campos Neto and Arnaud Desbiez 
for relevant data; José Maurício Barbanti Duarte for the 
identification of the brocket deer; the CNPq for earlier 
financial support.
REFERENCES
Anjos, L. 2009. Crows (Corvidae), p. 494-641. In: del Hoyo, J.; 
Elliot, A. & Christie, D. (eds.). Handbook of the birds of the 
world. Vol. 14, Bush-strikes to Old World sparrows. Barcelona, 
Lynx Edicions.
Desbiez, A. L. J. & Kluyber, D. 2013. The role of giant armadillos 
(Priodontes maximus) as physical ecosystem engineers. Biotropica, 
45(5): 537–540.
Dixon, J. G. 1944. California Scrub Jay picks ticks from mule deer. 
The Condor, 46(4): 204.
Gwynne, J. A.; Ridgely, R. S.; Tudor, G. & Argel, M. 2010. Aves do 
Brasil: Pantanal & Cerrado. São Paulo: Editora Horizonte.
Isenhart, F. R. & DeSante D. F. 1985. Observations of scrub jays 
cleaning ectoparasites from black-tailed deer. The Condor, 87(1): 
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Murphy, D. 2010. [Purplish Jay hitching a ride on a Marsh Deer 
- Pouso Alegro, Patanal, BR]. https://www.flickr.com/photos/
dennismurphy/5213875211/in/photostream/(access on 28 
February 2015).
Neam, K.D. 2015. The odd couple: interactions between a sloth and 
a brown jay. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 13(3): 
170–171
Peres, C. A. 1996. Ungulate ectoparasite removal by black caracaras 
and pale-winged trumpeters in Amazonian forests. Wilson Bulletin, 
108(1): 170-175.
Sazima, I. 2007. Unexpected cleaners: Black Vultures (Coragyps 
atratus) remove debris, ticks, and peck at sores of capybaras 
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birds in Brazil. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia, 15(3): 417-426.
Sazima, I. 2011. Cleaner birds: a worldwide overview. Revista 
Brasileira de Ornitologia, 19(1): 32-47.
Sazima, I. & Sazima, C. 2010. Cleaner birds: an overview for the 
Neotropics. Biota Neotropica, 10(4): 195-203.
Tomas, W. M. 1995. Seasonality of the antler cycle of the Pampas deer 
(Ozotocerus bezoarticus leucogaster) from the Pantanal wetland, 
Brazil. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment, 30(4): 221-
227.
Tomas, W. M.; Salis, S. M.; Silva, M. P. & Mourão, G. 2001. Marsh 
deer (Blastocerus dichotomus) distribution as a function of floods 
in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and 
Environment, 36(1): 9-13.


The Purplish Jay Rides Wild Ungulates To Pick Food

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The Purplish Jay Rides Wild Ungulates To Pick Food

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