Green Jay

Just got back from a wonderful birding trip in Texas. Here's a pic of a green jay in Laguna Atascosa.

Great shot, Todd! Those have always evaded me.

Such a beautiful pic Todd. Thank You!

What a gorgeous bird!

Thanks for sharing, Todd. It's always wonderful to see the birds not native to ones own area. What a beauty it is, too!

I can only add..... W O W !!!!!!!

Nice clear shot, Todd !!! While you were there did anyone see the aberrant Green Jay which is blue where it should be green ?

Hey Todd,

Great shot. Amazing one stayed put long enough for a photograph! Was that taken at the feeding station by the front of the place where there are benches you can sit and watch?

We get those in the fruit trees back at the ranch. Very pretty but quite noisy.

~ Cat

I didn't see the abberant 'blue' green jay. Yes, the pic, was taken at the feeder station in Laguna Atascosa.

Oh Todd, you were right by my house! When I saw the green jays, I knew you were probably at Laguna Atascosa! Did you see the chachalacas(you would hear those before you saw them, lol). Did you drive around the loop that goes by the Bay?

I didn't know anyone actually 'lived' on South Padre...I thought it was all hotels! I was out on the island and went as far as the Conference Center where the boardwalk traverses the salt-water marsh.

Chachalaca and White-tipped Doves were also at the feeder station but they wouldn't come close enough for a picture.

Todd, yes there are a few people who actually live on the island. Lots of them leave for vacation elsewhere during spring break though.
The boardwalk by the convention center is a good place to see birds. We had "fall-out" this past weekend. Lots of buntings and other birds landed on the island. The birders were prepared for it(it has something to do with spring migration and storms at sea and cold weather. My boss' wife has a bed and breakfast on the island and lots of birders stay there.)

Did you see any Great Tailed Grackles?

Where they suppose to be there?! LOL!

Yes, every where on the Gulf Coast.

great photos of the Green Jays. I haven't been fast enough to get a photo of them in South Texas...!

Melanie

Melanie, if you go to Laguna Atascosa they have feeding stations with lots of green jays and they have a photo blind. The chachalacas are usually there too.

Dying of envy here, Todd. What a great bird. I can't help it-I love all the jays!

I 'd love to see a jay also but don't think they come this far. Trois: Did you mean Boat- Tailed Grackles ? I've never heard of Great - Tailed .

Both live in this area. The Great Tailed is a little bit larger, and has yellow eyes. The Boat Tailed has brown eyes. Great Tailed are much more numerous here.

Since I've never heard of the Great tailed, I don't guess I have them here..but have plenty of the boat tailed. I'll have to look it up and watch for them.

Good idea. I have no idea of the range of either.

Loads of Great-tails in southern Texas (one of my hotels was in the middle of their night roost...WHAT A RACKET!). I saw the boat-tails on High Island.

Great-tailed used to be thought to be just a subspecies of Boat-tailed, but then they were split into two species.

Boat-tailed: Atlantic and Gulf coasts; coastal saltmarshes only
Great-tailed: Southwest, CA to NE, south to TX and Mexico; various inland habitats

So Betterbloom's are Great-tailed.

Resin

When I lived in AZ there was a Great-tailed that sat in the tree by my car. We used to have a chat every AM. He didn't seem that noisy considering the racket that the gila woodpeckers and the cactus wrens made and there were many more of them.

We have huge flocks of Great-tailed Grackles here in SA......well, all over Central and South Texas really, especially in Winter. I grew up near Corpus Christi..where my parents have lived in our family home for 42 years. It has been about 20 years or so that we started to see mobs of Green Jays coming from the Valley and Mexico...as well as Mexican Eagles or Caracaras as they are called. Brownsville is a great place to find alot of these visitors as well.. :)

Melanie

I've seen Caracaras in FL. Very impressive guys! I had to cancel a birding trip to Texas 2 years ago. It's still at the top of my list.

I saw loads of Caracara in S. Texas. Harris' Hawks were very common in the very south but a little further north they were replaced by white-tailed hawks.

OO. White tailed-never heard of them!

Beautiful bird! I never knew there were so many variants on the ole Blue Jay standbye :)

Resin, You must be right (as always..lol)
Stepped outside this morning to get a pic of them. Sorry the pics not that good..I'll try again later.

lol boojum....when I lived near Concord, Ma....a birder told me that he and his birding group actually spotted a lone caracara there in Ma. Can you believe it?? Interesting birds tho. You see them in pairs usually, in the brush country of South Texas. But we are beginning to see them here in the SA area. Not very many however.

Wow...I've only seen Red-Tailed Hawks here....along with Swainson's, Harris and Coopers...I believe. Would love to spot a White-Tail. :)

Melanie

I missed zone-tailed but got it in Arizona. I did see a distant Grey hawk on the recent trip. White-tailed hawks were most common between Aransas and Brownsville....once you move inland, the Harris' dominated.

Resin the Caracara in MA might have been legit......we have a record for white-winged dove (3 in fact) for Newfoundland...that's a long was off from their normal range. Caracara are in Florida so it is not a stretch for one to get caught in a hurricane coming up the coast. We had a white-tailed tropic bird arrive in St. John's last fall after a hurricane passed by. First Newfoundland record and it appeared DEAD only a kilometer from my house!

Hi Todd,

I'd have my doubts - going by the green dots in Sibley's Bird Guide, Caracara doesn't seem to be prone to vagrancy, with no green dots anywhere in the east (not even for AL, GA, SC or NC), whereas White-winged Dove is, with green dots all the way up the east coast to NL, and right up to Alaska on the west coast.

Sad about the tropicbird!

Just been doing a bit more searching . . . Alabama's first ever Caracara was on 19-20 Feb 2001: http://www.virtualbirder.com/bmail/labirdl/200102/21/index.html#9

Resin

I never thought to check Sibleys.....you are right in the fact that Caracara are not particularly migratory so the record in question probably was an escape.

To be quite honest, I had my doubts as well. This guy was the owner of a "Wildbird Store" and had a photo album on his counter that contained photos taken by birders, bird club members and customers. Lo and behold, there was a caracara. It almost had to have been an escapee...I would think. A local rehabilitator perhaps? Even so, would a licensed facility even have such a southern bird in its care?

Melanie