General

Green Jay: Medium-sized, tropical jay with green back, yellow underparts, and distinct black bib. Head and nape are pale blue and has a short crest. Tail is long, blue-green, and yellow-edged. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Green Jay: Resident from south Texas (Rio Grande Valley) south to the American tropics. Preferred habitats include open woodlands, dense secondary growth, and bushy thickets dominated by mesquite.

Breeding and Nesting

Green Jay: Three to five brown and purple spotted, gray, green or buff eggs are laid in a loosely made, thorny stick nest lined with rootlets or grass, and built in a bush or small tree. Incubation ranges from 17 to 18 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Green Jay: Diet consists of arthropods, vertebrates, seeds, and fruits. Forages in family flocks, moving from the lower portion of a tree in a spiral fashion up the branches; occasionally hovers to inspect slender branches and clumps of moss. When foraging on the ground, it turns over dry leaves and twigs by sweeping its bill from side to side.

Readily Eats

Cracked Corn, Suet, Sunflower Seed

Vocalization

Green Jay: Emits a variety of rattling calls, including "shink, shink, shink."

Similar Species

Green Jay: None in range.