‘Grue jay?’ Homeowner spots first blue jay and green jay hybrid in Texas. See it
Researchers in Texas have documented what may be the first example of a hybrid between a green jay and a blue jay.
“So what should we call this – a grue jay?” researchers said in a Sept. 18 news release about the discovery.
Biologists at The University of Texas at Austin say changing climate patterns may have led to shifting and expanded ranges for the two species, resulting in their mating, according to a study published Sept. 10 in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
Green jays, with their “unmistakable” iridescent blue and green plumage, “have remarkably expanded their range over the past two decades, shifting as much as 2 degrees of latitude over the span of a few generations,”
The hybrid bird was first reported in the Facebook birding group “TEXBIRDS” by a homeowner near San Antonio in May 2023.
Researchers visited the property the following month and trapped the bird using a mist net, according to the study.
“Prior to capture, we observed the hybrid following a flock of Blue Jays closely across two days,” researchers said.
“The hybrid produced vocalizations similar to common blue jay calls” as well as “bill-clicks and two-tone low rattling vocalizations typical of green jays in Texas,” they added
While the hybrid’s colors most closely resembled a traditional blue jay, its feather grouping was very similar to a green jay’s, researcher’s said.
What makes this discovery so “remarkable and “unlike the majority of avian hybridization events documented in the wild” is that green jays and blue jays are “relatively distantly related and are not classified within the same genus,” according to the study.
Their most recent common ancestor is estimated to have lived at least 7 million years ago, researchers said.
The hybrid was seen again on June 9, officials said.
The research team included Brian R. Stokes and Timothy H. Keitt.
This story was originally published September 19, 2025 at 4:18 PM with the headline "‘Grue jay?’ Homeowner spots first blue jay and green jay hybrid in Texas. See it."
