Florida Scrub-Jay

Overview

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.

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.

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.