Howdy friends. This week we are talking about another Embertine OT post, the green jay. These birds live in southern Texas and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Mexico including the Yucatan peninsula, as well as south into Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. Green jays are small and slight, being 25–29 cm (9.8–11.4 in) in length and weighing 66 to 110 grams (2.3 to 3.9 oz). Coloration varies slightly throughout their range, with the green feathers fading to pale in more southern populations. Eye color also varies among the seven accepted subspecies, being brown in the north and bright yellow in the south.
Green jays have been known to mate with blue jays, creating the pretty but unattractively (and unofficially) named “grue jay” hybrid, which might necessitate its own header. Grue jays are found in southern Texas, where the ranges of the two birds overlap.
Green jays forage in family flocks and eat a variety of fruit and cereal grains, as well as insects and other invertebrates. They are among the animals that have been observed using sticks to extract insects from beneath tree bark. Flying insects may be caught on the wing. The jays will collect and stash for later use the acorns of all available species of oak and supplement their diet with human garbage and meat when it is available, although it is hard to picture this little, brightly colored bird tearing flesh off of a carcass.
Green jays build nests in thorny thickets. The female will incubate the eggs but both parents will care for the chicks once they hatch. Family flocks consist of the breeding pair, newly hatched birds and at least one yearling from the previous season. The yearling will help defend the nest, but is ejected from the group once the new batch of chicks fledge. In Colombia, however, these older offspring have been observed as part of the family flock for several years, helping to raise successive generations of chicks.
The green jay is considered “of least concern” by the IUCN, which feels like a nice change of pace. It has a large range and a large population, which is thought to be increasing.
On a personal note, I was poking around in WordPress a few days ago and noticed that I took over the WPT headers just about four years ago this week. It took while before I settled on a format, so they haven’t all been birds, but I wanted to thank you all for coming on this journey with me. It has been lots of fun learning about the wonders of nature with you and I look forward to many more birds in our future. Have a good weekend, everyone.
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