AUSTIN, Texas – A rare hybrid bird was discovered in a suburb northeast of San Antonio, according to biologists at the University of Texas at Austin.
The bird is a natural result of a green jay and a blue jay’s mating, a Thursday news release states. Biologists said this bird “may be among the first examples of a hybrid animal that exists because of recent changing patterns in the climate.”
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“We think 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,” said Brian Stokes, a graduate student in ecology, evolution and behavior at UT and first author of the study.
Stokes studies green jays in Texas. While monitoring several social media sites where birders share photos of their sightings, he came across a grainy picture of an “odd-looking blue bird” that was posted by a woman on the Northeast Side.
“It was vaguely like a blue jay, but clearly different,” the release stated.
Stokes was invited to the birder’s backyard to capture the bird for research.
“Stokes took a quick blood sample of this strange bird, banded its leg to help relocate it in the future, and then let it go,” according to the release.
“I don’t know what it was, but it was kind of like random happenstance,” Stokes said. “If it had gone two houses down, probably it would have never been reported anywhere.”
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