Read the most recent Jay Watch report here.

Audubon Florida coordinates the Jay Watch community science program statewide. We train and support volunteers to conduct scientific surveys that measure annual nesting success and count the total number of Florida Scrub-Jays at more than 45 sites in 19 counties. The success of the Jay Watch program, and the program’s contributions to the recovery of Florida Scrub-Jays, depends upon dedicated volunteer community scientists like you, your family, and your friends.

Remarkably, in just 2023 alone, 112 volunteers invested over 1050 hours performing field surveys across the state. 

Florida Scrub-Jays: Nowhere Else on Earth

The Florida Scrub-Jay is our state’s only endemic bird species, found nowhere else in the world. It was listed as federally Threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) under the Endangered Species Act in 1987, largely due to loss of its native scrub habitat and decades of fire suppression that allowed the scrub to become overgrown and unsuitable for Scrub-Jays. While mowing of too-tall oak scrub can open bare sand patches needed by the jays for predator detection and for caching acorns, fire is still needed to remove debris left on the ground after mowing. And some of the rarer scrub plants require fire to set seed and reproduce.

Just how threatened are Florida Scrub-Jays?

The state’s population of Florida Scrub-Jays is estimated to have declined by 90% since the early 1800s. Between 1993 and 2010 our state’s Scrub-Jay population declined another 26%, mostly on public lands where they are generally better protected.

What are you waiting for? Get Involved!

• Join a Jay Watch survey team: contact Audubon's Audrey DeRose-Wilson.
• Attend one of our onsite training sessions held annually across the Florida peninsula. Contact Audrey for more information about our trainings.
• Watch our presentations on Florida Scrub-Jay Ecology and monitoring protocols.
• Sponsors of this program help us train volunteers, support our survey teams, and analyze and compile statewide survey data for use by site managers, wildlife agencies, and researchers.

Jay Watch Reports

Check out the latest Jay Watch reports in the Audubon Florida Publications Library.