Overview

• The bird was first flagged from a 2023 backyard photo near San Antonio, then captured, blood-sampled, banded and released for study.
• A peer-reviewed paper in Ecology and Evolution details roughly equal nuclear DNA from both species with mitochondrial DNA tracing to a green jay.
• Researchers report the hybrid is a male likely about four years old with continued sightings outside San Antonio.
• Scientists link the contact zone to warming temperatures and land-use change, with green jays moving up to about 200 miles north and blue jays expanding west.
• UT Austin researchers say this may be among the first observed vertebrate hybrids tied to simultaneous range expansions influenced by climate change, though no additional similar hybrids are confirmed.