The Florida Scrub Jay

Photo by Steven Kintner

The Florida Scrub Jay is a unique bird found only in Florida and not anywhere else in the world. They are federally listed as a threatened species due to habitat loss.  In Lyonia Preserve, thirty families that consist of approximately ninety birds. In the 1990's before restoration began no scrub-jays and only a few Gopher Tortoises lived in the area. At this time the preserve was not ideal Scrub Habitat, it was severely overgrown and did not allow species native to scrub habitat to reside there. Within a year of restoration scrub-jays began visiting Lyonia Preserve and by the second year they began nesting. The Florida Scrub Jay lives in family units ranging from 2-6 family members. There is a dominant male and female that breed and juveniles that stay with the family as helpers. In April and May scrub-jays begin building their nests. As June and July roll around, it is time to lay 2-5 eggs. Unlike most other birds, the Florida Scrub Jays are active teachers. The female will teach her juveniles how to hunt, gather, and protect the family. As juveniles grow, they remain with the family for two-three years. As they grow every member in the family takes part of sentinel duty, hunts and gathers food. The sentinel's job is to keep guard and look out for danger. Each scrub-jay hides 6,000-8,000 acorns for winter. This process entails carrying up to five acorns in his mouth at a time, laying down the acorns, digging a hole for each one, hammering it in the ground, and covering it with a plant or leaf. They have no sense of smell and therefore rely strictly on memory to find the acorn come winter time. They have an excellent memory and can recall 80% of the acorns they have hidden. Juvenile scrub-jays have brown heads and grey bodies, while the adult male and female scrub-jays have the same blue and grey coloration. Though we humans can not tell the difference between male and the females, scrub-jays can see in ultra-violet light in which the genders look different. When they get old enough they will go off and try to find territory where there is hopefully a potential mate looking at the same territory. If no territory can be found they will come home and the parents will give them a small patch of territory to mate. A Florida Scrub-Jay will spend their whole lives within six miles of home. Due to living in these large family units, being extremely smart, having the ability to use tools, recognize colors and faces, these birds can live for up to twenty years.


Florida Scrub-Jay. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/birds/songbirds/florida-scrub-jay/. Accessed April 15 2017
Florida Scrub Jay.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. https://www.fws.gov/verobeach/msrppdfs/floridascrubjay.pdf. Accessed April 15 2017