Florida Scrub-Jays--A Specialist Species

The first time a bird lands on your head, you don't know what's happening. Your hand automatically reaches up to check it out. When you hear a jay flutter away, it's an 'aha' moment.
The next time you're ready and you can't help but giggle. It's a delightful experience. And when a Scrub-Jay lands on your hand and politely looks at you with expectance--unforgettable. This was the nature of my introduction to the Florida Scrub-Jay. (Click images below to enlarge.)

My guide on this occasion was Vince Lamb, Master Naturalist, photographer and Scrub-Jay expert. We were visiting the Helen and Allan Cruickshank Sanctuary, a 160-acre preserve in Rockledge, FL, made possible by Florida's Environmentally Endangered Lands Program (EEL).

The Florida Scrub-Jay is the state's only endemic bird, occurring nowhere else and found mostly in Central Florida. In addition, this species requires a very specific habitat, oak scrub with only a scattering of tall trees. This habitat emerges in sandy soils that were once coastal dunes and its biodiversity is dependent upon natural fire cycles that prevent over-growth.

Scrub-Jays are omnivores, feeding on insects, acorns, small reptiles and amphibians. Vince pointed out another habitat that often adjoins scrub habitat, the Wet Prairie or savannah, pictured below. These prairies are characterized by low, relatively flat, treeless, and poorly drained coastal plains that support a variety of frogs, reptiles and other species that Scrub-Jays depend upon for food.

The specialist Scrub-Jay is also one of few bird species known to live in small family groups, usually consisting of a breeding pair and several of their off-spring. Group members have specific duties that they alternate, such as 'sentinel duty' and feeding young during breeding season.

The jay you see perched above is taking the job of sentinel duty seriously. While on watch, he/she sits alert and vigilant, watching for predators and intruders, untempted even by a handy meal until relieved of duty by another individual. Specific calls indicate whether an intruder or predator is present and even what kind of predator. A different call denotes a hawk overhead or a snake below, and family members are alerted to action, whether to hide or collectively mob.

Above you see four members of a family. The jay third from left holds a peanut in his mouth. Only a limited number of naturalists have permits to offer peanuts to these birds (my guide, Vince, being one of them), otherwise feeding them is illegal. The reason for feeding permits-- banding, a crucial method of periodically capturing and monitoring a bird population, helping biologists track the relative health and rise and fall of this threatened species.

In 2004 only two Scrub-Jays inhabited this sanctuary. Today their numbers have increased to thirty. Statewide, in 1992, the Scrub-Jay population was estimated to number 9,500 to 11,000. As human development encroaches on scrub areas and natural fires are suppressed, scrub habitat is rapidly disappearing, causing further decline in Florida Scrub-Jays and other scrub dependent species. This, of course, makes saving scrub habitat and closely monitoring the wildlife dependent upon this habitat even more crucial.

For more information about Florida's Scrub-Jays and related information visit the following links:

Vince Lamb (Top image of me with Scrub-Jay courtesy of Vince Lamb.)

Brevard County's Environmental Endangered Lands Program

Helen and Allan Cruickshank Sanctuary with field trip information provided by Space Coast Eco, and Location Map

Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival and event reports from David McCree

My blog posts about Bird Banding and Space Coast birds.

And just a note about the above sketchbook image. One of the values of photography and especially sketching is the opportunity to intimately study a subject, its color patterns, expression and shapes. Learning happens while you work. Many of my photographs make the Scrub-Jay's cheek patch appear dark, charcoal, even black. This is also how the Florida Scrub-Jay is illustrated in my copy of the Peterson's field guide, Eastern Birds. But closer inspection of images and additional study in the Sibley's field guide, show these facial feathers to be blue, a color that seems to fall somewhere between cobalt and cerulean on the watercolor palette. Lighting changes how these colors appear to the eye, and of course, there are variations in individuals with some having more gray feathers mixed in with the blue. A close look at the cheek feathers is provided in image #four above.

This is one of the fun parts of sketching, chasing down the details, wrapping your mind and your eye around the subject and remembering all you experienced in the process. Besides being a fun way to record encounters in nature, the sketchbook gives you an even deeper appreciation for any species that has sparked your curiosity and imagination!

Linked to Bird Photography Weekly #76 at Birdfreak.com to promote the conservation of our world's birds.