Green Jay x Blue Jay Paper

In June of 2023, we were stunned to discover a putative hybrid jay in a suburb outside of San Antonio, Texas with the help of landowner and original observer Donna Currey. PI Keitt and doctoral candidate Brian Stokes were able to observe the bird in the field, band it, and collect a small blood sample for genomic analysis.

The putative hybrid’s paternity was uncovered using whole-genome sequencing and comparative bioinformatic techniques to confirm this bird to be a F1 hybrid resultant of the mating between a female Green Jay (Cyanocorax yncas) and a male Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata). This finding offers rare insight into how climate change and human-altered landscapes are bringing previously isolated species into contact. Green Jays are typically found from South Texas through Central and South America, while Blue Jays dominate eastern and northern forests. Their overlap in South Texas is narrow, and until now no wild hybrids had ever been documented. As warming temperatures and shifting habitats continue, such cross-species encounters may become increasingly common.

Our paper titled “An intergeneric hybrid between historically isolated temperate and tropical jays following recent range expansion” appears in Ecology and Evolution.

a. Blue Jay by Travis Maher. Cornell Lab of Ornithology - Macaulay Library. b. Hybrid Jay by Brian R. Stokes. c. Green Jay by Dan O’Brien. Cornell Lab of Ornithology - Macaulay Library.