The Florida Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) is a blue and gray crestless jay. It does not have the white wingspots and tailfeather tips seen on the common blue jay. Florida scrub jays are about 12" long.

Habitat: Scrub jays can be found over much of the western United States and Mexico, but the Florida scrub jay appears only in small, isolated patches of sand pine, xeric oak, flatwood, and other scrub in peninsular Florida. They have very specific habitat requirements, and avoid wetlands and forests, including canopied sand pine stands. They can be found in the vicinity of Kennedy Space Center.

Florida scrub jays eat a variety of animal and plant items, including seeds, berries, acorns, insects, frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, other birds' eggs, and even mice.

Florida scrub jays mate for life.

Due to extensive habitat loss and elimination of scrub jays from much of their former range, they are now legally protected as a Threatened Species by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Only about 2,000 are thought to be left.

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