GFBT Florida-Scrub Jay Traditional Cache

This cache is part of a series of caches on the Great Florida Birding Trail for my Girl Scout Gold Award project. The purpose is to teach people about the birds that are native to the area so they can learn more about the birds and how to protect them and their environment.

This cache is located at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Titusville, Florida. The trails are open from sunrise to sunset everyday, and the Visitor Center is open Monday - Sunday from 8am to 4pm.

Florida Scrub Jay

Characteristics

• Large and sturdy bird with a long tail and hefty legs.

• Uncrested jay that has a big flat head and a heavy bill.

• Mostly blue with a whitish forehead and a pale gray back and belly.

Behavior

• Hops on the ground or in trees and shrubs to pick insects and harvest acorns, which it buries in the ground to eat later.

• Often perches vertically on wires or exposed branches with its long tail hanging down.

• Eats a wide variety of insects, especially in summer, as well as a few spiders and snails.

Conservation Status

• Threatened, as of the early 1990s, the total population was estimated at about 4,000 pairs

• Loss of habitat has been the main cause of mortality, and lives no where else in the world besides Florida.

Habitat

• Found only in low-growing oak scrub and scrubby flatwoods with sandy soils in Florida.

• Within these patches of oak scrub, they frequent relatively open areas with bare sandy patches.

Interesting Facts

• When the offspring leave the nest, instead of going off to raise young on their own they stay with their parents and help them raise next year's brood.

• Scrub-Jay families take turns watching for hawks while the rest of the family looks for food.

• They don't migrate, rarely move more than a few miles from where they hatched, and they don't like to move across areas that aren't scrub oak.