A rare bird that researchers believe to be a hybrid of a male blue jay and a female green jay has been found in a Northeast suburb of San Antonio.
Brian Stokes, a graduate student in ecology, evolution and behavior at UT, stated in a news release that he believes it's the “first observed vertebrate that's hybridized as a result of two species both expanding their ranges due, at least in part, to climate change.”
Stokes told MySA.com that blue jays and green jays have almost never came into contact with each other, though their ranges have converged around San Antonio as green jays pushed north and blue jays have pushed west.
"Hybridization is probably way more common in the natural world than researchers know about because there's just so much inability to report these things happening," he said. "And it's probably possible in a lot of species that we just don't see because they're physically separated from one another and so they don't get the chance to try to mate."
Researchers have not opted to name the bird yet, but they did ask in their press release, "So What Should We Call This – a Grue Jay?"
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