A Green Jay for Earth Day: Treasures of the National Butterfly Center

I spent five days around South Padre Island and Mission, Texas, last week. One place I wanted to visit was the National Butterfly Center. I was not sure what I would find, but knowing the Center is right on the migratory bird route, I figured I’d see some interesting birds. Butterflies would also be nice, but I know most of that migration takes place in the fall.

The National Butterfly Center is a 100-acre wildlife sanctuary in Mission, Texas, operated by the North American Butterfly Association (NABA). Unlike traditional butterfly houses, it is entirely outdoors — in native gardens, along trails, and in thornscrub habitat along the Rio Grande. More butterfly species have been documented here than at any other location in the United States (over 200), and because the Center sits on a major migratory flyway, birders have recorded well over 240 bird species on the property. It is also a meaningful conservation story — the Center has fought hard in recent years to protect its habitat from border-wall construction and remains a symbol of what community-led preservation looks like. As soon as we began our walk around one of the Center’s trails, we began hearing a lot of birds. The one I feature today is a lifer. I was looking for Altamira Orioles (which I saw — also a lifer), but seeing a Green Jay up close was unexpected.

The Green Jay (Cyanocorax yncas) is a strikingly colored member of the crow and jay family — lime-green back, lemon-yellow belly, and a deep blue-and-black head that looks almost painted on. In the United States, it lives only in the southernmost tip of Texas; its broader range runs down through Mexico and into Central and South America. Adults are roughly 10–12 inches (25–30 cm) long and weigh about 2.5–3.5 ounces (70–100 g). They are highly social, travel in noisy family groups, and are among the few North American birds known to use tools, occasionally wielding twigs to pry insects from bark. Spotting one up close, as I did, is a small gift — they are curious but usually stay tucked in the brush.

The northern population reaches the United States only at the very southernmost tip of Texas — essentially the Lower Rio Grande Valley, which is exactly why places like the National Butterfly Center matter so much. From there, the range runs south through most of eastern and coastal Mexico and on into Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras.

The southern population lives thousands of miles away, in the Andes Mountains of South America — Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia — where the birds inhabit cloud forests and humid mountain woodlands at elevations between roughly 3,000 and 10,000 feet (900–3,050 meters).

Between those two populations is a wide gap: Green Jays are essentially absent from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Amazon lowlands. That separation is so striking that ornithologists have increasingly treated the two groups as separate species. The American Ornithological Society now recognizes the northern birds — the ones I photographed at the Center — as the Green Jay (Cyanocorax luxuosus), and the Andean birds as the Inca Jay (Cyanocorax yncas). Older field guides often still lump the two together under C. yncas.

That is the story behind the shots. If you liked this post, you may also be interested in others featuring Bird of the Week, Green Jay, Mission, National Butterfly Center, One Step, Parks, Texas, and Wildlife. Until the next time, keep clicking and capturing the beauty your eyes find.

Posted for I.J. Khanewala’s Birds of the Week Invitation CLXV.

Posted for Pepper’s One Step at a Time # 6.