Had quite a few of them through here several times this winter.

Pretty neat birds. They like talking, too....



Anyone else seen any?

I’ve never seen one before. Beautiful bird, it almost looks like something tropical other than the Jay shaped head and beak.

I think they are a more tropical bird. This is pretty far north to be seeing them.

Another bright spot this year is the lack of grackles. Not seen many of them. Or the brown head cowbirds either.

new one on me. very nice

Hunted in Starr county couple of times in the 90's and saw them. Pretty birds.

Kenedy county place is full of em! 😊

When I lived in Kingsville, Tx in the late 70’s to early 80’s we had a to. Of them in town. Very pretty bird. Kinda on the mean side like a Mockingbird.

Real Co. must be too far north, or my bird-watching family would say so.

We have a couple feeders but our winter birds are pretty boring: a couple types of sparrows, house finches, Oregon juncos, and magpies. This winter that's it. We don't even have the collared doves that we've had in past winters. A half dozen quail have wandered by a couple times but most of the time they're somewhere else.

Never have seen one before, thanks for posting

Do they come up from MX, Barry? I've not seen them down here in the south of south.

yes, don't think the range is much farther north than south tx. Pretty cool birds had one land on my arrow and check me out while I was in the tree stand

Range Map

Saw them for the fist time at Choke Canyon back in December while hunting. Deer weren’t moving so they were entertaining.

Really a pretty bird, very bright color in the sunlight.

This time of year they're typically found only in southern TX and points south. Here's another map for comparison.

Looks like a blue jay /parakeet love child

Cool looking bird.

Steller's and Scrub jays around here. Mainly Steller's.

We must be too far North for them.

Never seen one or heard of them. Pretty interesting, and after seeing that map of their range I know why. Thanks for posting.

Only place I've ever seen them was in S. Tx. Interesting bird.

Wish we had chacalacas at that Kenedy county ranch. Just to see them. I know they are in the southern end of the county. But none up at our end.

I hear from the quail experts a covey with less than six or so has no chance to make it through the winter.

If a few barn owls or bobcat finds them a covey of 20 wont make it through.

A century ago, the species was restricted to the Rio Grande Valley. In the 1970s and ’80s, the northern edge of the range was near Kingsville, southwest of Corpus Christi. Since then, it has spread north and east, and today, it occurs near San Antonio — 225 miles north of the Rio Grande

LINK

How do they taste, KW?

Strange that in last of the 60s i went to college in Kingsville and never saw them.

I don’t know Jag. Some say close to pheasant. I don’t know if they are serious or pulling my leg. I just thought they would be cool to see.

Another bird I saw a few times and considered it out of it's known area were chukars.

Saw them out in west Texas sometimes. Not often.

Hell, I consider myself lucky to see a quail any more.

I enjoy watching them while I'm hunting. They give the dove hell.

Great photo, Elk!!!

I have yellow warblers, house finches, dark-eyed juncos, some unidentifiable sparrows, chicadees, magpies, and a few scrub jays at my feeders this winter. The warblers mob my thistle sacks. Sadly, I have not seen any woodpeckers, pine siskins, or flickers at my suet feeder this year. Can't imagine why not; they were plentiful last year. Last year there were also little bunches of bushtits that pecked insect eggs from the dead branches of my neighbor's apricot tree, but none this year. I did see a huge flock of robins a while back, kind of surprising for birds that are normally loners.

Thank you sir!

First one I've seen Barry, very pretty bird.

We had a lot of green jays in the yard when we lived in Harlingen. We even had a few parrots around once in a while. The chacalacas would eat the dog's food if they could. i went out once and shot a chacalaca (there was a season on them). Interesting hunt with a muzzleloading, single barrel shotgun. Wife cooked it with dumplings as one would an older hen. Tough- even the dumplings were tough from just being in the pot with that bird! That was the extent of my chacalaca hunting.

Furthest north I’ve personally heard em is Floresville, about 30 miles south of San Antonio, and that was just one time.

They do occasionally show up in San Antonio, I would imagine a hard winter event like last year would knock them back a bit.

What a beautiful bird. I've never seen a bird like this before.

South Texas brush country is full of them.

Three kinds (pinyon, scrub, Stellar's) here, but not the green ones.

That is a cool looking bird. Never saw one before.

I have seen them in Honduras and Colombia South America.

That’s the only place I’ve ever seen him one.

New one to me - gorgeous bird. We have Canada (Grey) i. e. "camp robbers" and Stellar Jays up here.

Ahah. That's why I've never seen one. Cool looking birds, though.

Appears they've not made it to Oregon yet. Neat looking bird.

Rockinbbar: Never seen one of those!
Great picture - thanks for sharing.
What part of the world are you "not in the city" in?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VG, I'm south of San Antonio a good bit.

One year hunting at STX's brother's lease down near CC I saw one while Rog' was away from where I was looking for something to shoot . When he came back I said, "I saw an amazing tropical looking bird I'd never seen before." He asked me to describe it and I explained that, well, it actually looked a lot like a bluejay, but green. He says, "it's probably a green jay". I laughed and was like, 'OK whatever', thinking he was pulling my leg. He wasn't.

Yes sir, the first one I ever saw I had the same thought, and yea Roger will pull your leg.

Green Jay's are very common here. Rio7

Never have seen one.

Frequent sightings in Harlingen TX, to Rio Grande City.

Thanks for the neat photo and the informative thread. I thought that I had seen every sort of Jay in the US - including those noisy flocks of Pinyon Jays - but your Green Jay is totally new. Probably good reason - have not yet gotten down to visit Blue and only time I have been in your part of TX was to pilfer a golf cart.

Are the males and females similar in their markings or are the females a bit duller in color ?

they look almost alike but females are slightly smaller and duller and mature females are streaked on their breast,

Nice looking bird. There's some good fly tying material there.

Had never seen or heard of one before, thanks for posting the pics. Beautiful bird. We have lots of blue jays here, but to my knowledge, that’s the only type around here.

We really enjoy seeing the stellars when we’re in CO or Canada. We also saw what I believe were pinyon jays when we were hiking in Escalante UT this year.