Climate change has been linked to a lot of things… but a new type of bird? That's a first!
When researchers at the University of Texas at Austin discovered a strange-looking bird spotted near San Antonio, they visited the scene in June 2023 and took a blood sample. Test results revealed the bird as a hybrid – the result of a blue jay mating with a green jay – they reported this month in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
The bird may be among the first examples of climate change contributing to the formation of hybrid animals, the researchers say, as the habitat ranges of blue jays and green jays did not overlap until a few decades ago.
The bird, which is primarily blue like a blue jay, but has the green jay's increased black coloring on its face, is a male hybrid offspring of a green jay mother and a blue jay father.
Scientists were alerted to the rare bird when a homeowner posted about it in a Facebook birding group in May 2023. "If it had gone two houses down, probably it would have never been reported anywhere," they said.
Birds of a feather flock together, the adage goes. But a rare bird spotted in Texas suggests there's more ornithological intermingling than previously thought.
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