Center-stage, researchers identified a rare hybrid in a San Antonio suburb that stems from the mating of a male blue jay (left) and a female green jay, a study reports. Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Images; Brian Stokes/University of Texas at Austin; Danita Delimont/Alamy Stock Photo.
As noted by CNN
What do you get when you cross a blue jay with a green jay? This is not the start of a joke, but the subject of a new study describing a bird hybrid not previously observed in the wild.
The big question for scientists now: why does this mysterious bird exist?
Discovery and Context
According to researchers, this may be the first documented vertebrate to become a hybrid as the ranges of two species expand, partly due to climate change. The study was led by Bryan Stokes, a biology graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, and the paper appeared in Ecology and Evolution on September 10.
“We believe this is the first documented vertebrate to arise through hybridization of two species that are expanding their ranges, partly due to climate change.”
The green jay inhabits parts of South and Central America, Mexico, and a limited portion of southern Texas. However, since 2000 its range has moved north along the Rio Grande and reached San Antonio, reflecting the influence of climate and environmental changes, explained study co-author Timothy Kitt.
Bird enthusiasts from Central Texas have noted increasing sightings on social media and apps like eBird. Kitt, a professor of integrative biology at UT Austin, has tracked their rapid northward progression since 2018: “They’re very unmistakable in the field,” he told CNN. “When you see a green jay, you immediately know it’s the green jay.”
Stokes joined the project a few years later, capturing birds to take blood samples and releasing them back into the wild. In May 2023, while monitoring mentions of the green jay on social media, Stokes came across a post in the Texbirds group on Facebook: a woman from a San Antonio suburb posted a photo of a strange bird that did not resemble any jay he knew.
“He noticed that this person had posted a photo of a strange jay, and we immediately got in the car and headed out to find it.”
Genetic analysis confirmed that the bird is the offspring of a male blue jay and a female green jay, demonstrating the reality of hybridization in the wild. The only previously known similar hybrid was born in captivity in the 1960s; the specimen is kept in a Texas museum collection.
“According to Leighton, such a strange pair is something like a ‘biological surprise’.”
According to Leighton, this is indeed a “biological surprise”: both species form long-term social bonds with a mate, so they are likely to choose them with notable diligence. Shrikes and other jays are known for their intelligence, and the blue and green jays look fairly different, which makes them easy to tell apart.
Climate change and urbanization are increasingly pressing against the ranges of these birds, which may lead to new interactions and the formation of unusual ecological communities. Scientists emphasize that further studies of bird hybridization in the context of climate change will help reveal the mechanisms by which nature adapts to anthropogenic factors.
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