Forty-Eight New Neighbors: The Florida Scrub-Jay Is Making a Comeback in Manatee County

Here's a piece of news worth carrying around this week: Florida's only homegrown bird species is getting real, measurable help — and it's working. As WUSF reported in mid-September, forty-eight young scrub-jays were successfully moved to a state park in January 2026, part of a long-running effort to pull one of the state's most beloved birds back from the brink.

What happened

The birds' new home is Wingate Creek State Park, and it wasn't chosen by accident. The state park in Myakka City is one of only seven regions left in Florida with enough interconnected scrub forest to allow scrub jays to thrive. The plan is patient and hopeful in equal measure: the hope is the translocated birds' offspring mate with those already at Wingate Creek State Park, giving subsequent generations a much-needed boost of fresh DNA.

And this isn't one agency going it alone. The project is a collaboration among public and private partners, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Verdantas, the University of Central Florida, Archbold Biological Station and the Mosaic Company. When WUSF tagged along this fall, representatives tracked the translocated birds to see how they're faring — checking in on the new arrivals, family group by family group.

Why it matters

The scrub-jay has been in trouble for a long time. The Florida scrub jay was listed as federally threatened in 1987, and by 1993, only 4,000 breeding pairs remained. The trend line since then is the good part: the Florida Department of Environmental Protection estimates there are between 7,000 and 9,000 birds today.

That recovery didn't happen on its own. The bird's habitat is particular — scrub jays need bare ground, and the shrubs have to be a certain height for the birds to find food. They hop along the ground between shrubs looking for insects, acorns, berries, and small vertebrates. Keeping scrub in that condition takes constant, unglamorous work, which makes every uptick in the count feel earned.

A bird that belongs only to Florida

Part of what makes this story land is that the scrub-jay isn't just any bird. The scrub jay is only found in the Sunshine State — you can't see one in Georgia, or anywhere else on Earth. It's also a homebody in the most literal sense: scrub jays are nonmigratory, so this trait makes it easier for researchers to follow a single population in the wild. They stay put, raise their families in the same patch of scrub, and defend it like a front porch. If any animal embodies small-town Florida, it's this one — loyal to its ground, a little loud about it, and better off when the neighbors pitch in.

That's the version of Florida we try to put on everything in our Florida collection — the sandy, scrubby, stubborn one that keeps surprising people.

Go see one for yourself

Scrub-jays are famously bold around visitors, and Florida's state parks and preserves with healthy scrub habitat are the best places to spot them. Wingate Creek State Park sits out in Myakka City in Manatee County, and the broader scrub country of central Florida — Ocala National Forest, the Lake Wales Ridge — is jay territory too. Go early, walk slow, and listen for the racket. If you want to dress for the occasion, the Welcome to Florida Tee was made for exactly this kind of morning: sunscreen, sandy trail, one very opinionated blue bird.

And if you'd rather help than hike, Florida's scrub-jay work has long leaned on citizen volunteers who help count birds during annual surveys — a few hours in the scrub, in service of a species that lives nowhere else.

Common questions

What is a Florida scrub-jay?

It's a blue-and-gray songbird found only in Florida's scrub habitat — the scrub jay is only found in the Sunshine State and has been federally listed as a threatened species by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service since 1987.

Is the population actually growing?

Yes — slowly but genuinely. By 1993, only 4,000 breeding pairs remained; the Florida Department of Environmental Protection estimates there are between 7,000 and 9,000 birds today.

Why move birds instead of just protecting them where they are?

Isolated populations run low on genetic diversity. As one wildlife biologist told WUSF, intentionally moving a species to a new location is one way to recover wildlife — the newcomers' offspring bring fresh DNA into the resident flock.

Reported by WUSF. Details as published at the time of writing.