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Florida Scrub-Jay

Aphelocoma coerulescensOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Crows and Jays (Corvidae)

Florida Scrub-Jay Breeding Male Portrait
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General

Florida Scrub-Jay: Medium-sized, crestless jay with gray upperparts and underparts, blue head, and pale eyebrows. Throat is gray and breast has blue-gray streaks. Wings and tail are blue. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Florida Scrub-Jay: Restricted to scrublands across central Florida; found in dense growths of low oaks, myrtles, sand pines, palmettos, and thickets.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"Quay-quay-quay", "cheek-cheek-cheek"

Interesting Facts

 The Florida Scrub-Jay is the only species of bird to be exclusively found in the state of Florida. There are several groups in Florida lobbying for it to become the state bird in place of the Northern Mockingbird.

 Males and females are not visually distinguishable, but females have a unique “hiccup” vocalization.

 Fledglings usually stay near to where they hatched as “helpers”, forming cooperative family groups. They assist in feeding other nestlings, defending the family territory from other scrub-jay groups and watching for predators.

 A group of jays has many collective nouns, including a "band", "cast", "party", and "scold" of jays.



Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Florida Scrub-Jay
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family Crows and Ravens (Corvidae)_blue
Species Aphelocoma coerulescens
Length11 Inches
Wingspan16 Inches

Florida Scrub-Jay

Florida Scrub-Jay: Medium, crestless jay with gray upperparts and underparts, blue head, and pale eyebrows. Throat is gray and breast has blue-gray streaks. The wings and tail are blue. Bill, legs and feet are black. Direct flight with steady bouyant wing beats. Glides between perches.

● Song: "Quay-quay-quay", "cheek-cheek-cheek"

● Foraging & Feeding: Florida Scrub-Jay: Eats insects, spiders, ticks, mice, small turtles, eggs and young of smaller birds, acorns, nuts, and fruits. Forages in low to middle levels in vegetation or hops on the ground.

● Breeding & nesting: Florida Scrub-Jay: Two to five pale green eggs irregularly spotted with red-brown are laid in a nest made of bulky sticks, lined with roots, twigs, moss, grass, and hair, and built on a horizontal branch or in the crotch of a low tree or bush, 2 to 12 feet above the ground. Incubation ranges from 15 to 17 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Florida Scrub-Jay: Blue Jay has slightly larger, chunkier body, blue crest, black collar from breast to nape, black back, and bold white spots on wings and tail.

Flight Pattern

Direct flight with steady buoyant wing beats. Glides between perches within tree, between trees, and from tree to ground.
Florida Scrub-Jay Breeding Male Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Florida Scrub-Jay: Restricted to scrublands across central Florida; found in dense growths of low oaks, myrtles, sand pines, palmettos, and thickets.
BreedingMonogamous, Cooperative
PopulationYes but uncommon
MigrationNonmigratory
Weight2.8 Ounces