Cyanocitta cristata (blue jay) genome, bCyaCrs1, sequence data

The blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata) is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae, native to eastern North America. It lives in most of the eastern and central United States; some eastern populations may be migratory. Resident populations are also in Newfoundland, Canada; breeding populations are found across southern Canada (from Wikipedia entry). This sample was collected by Jean-Nicolas Audet and Melanie Couture at the Rockefeller University Field Research Center in Millbrook, New York, for a vocal learning study and to generate a high-quality reference genome for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). Sequencing and genome assembly were conducted at the Vertebrate Genome Lab (VGL) at the Rockefeller University, led by Erich D. Jarvis, Giulio Formenti, and Jennifer Balacco.