January 20, 2006 - Wake-Up Call Series at the Oxbow Eco-Center on Sat., Feb. 4

The Natives are Restless…Working to Preserve a True Native -- the Florida Scrub-Jay

Join the Oxbow Eco-Center for the Saturday “Wake-Up Call” Lecture on Saturday, February 4th at 11:00 am, where Dr. Reed Bowman, Research Biologist and head of the Avian Ecology Lab at Archbold Biological Station, will present a program on the Florida Scrub-Jay.

The poster child for ‘family values,’ the Florida Scrub-Jay has a complex and fascinating family structure. These birds mate for life, and although many live for more than 10 years, most do not travel more than a few kilometres from their birthplace. The Florida Scrub-Jay exhibits the rare social system of cooperative breeding. Offspring of the mating pair stay with the family from one to six years and act as “helpers,” raising the young, watching for and mobbing predators, and defending their territory.

Keeping true to its name, the Scrub-Jay is partial to oak scrub habitat found on coastal ridges and along the ancient relict dune that makes up Florida’s backbone. This ancient dune is one of the state’s oldest landforms, having once been surrounded by a shallow sea when only a portion of Florida was above sea level. This relict dune system has the highest level of endemicity in the state – plant and animal species that are found nowhere else in the world. This includes several mints that have been shown to have medicinal values, and the Florida Scrub-Jay, the state’s only endemic bird species. Unfortunately, these dry elevated ridges of the scrub also attract a high level of development interests, leading it to become Florida’s most endangered ecosystem.

Over the last 25 years Bowman has studied the ecology, demography, and conservation of several threatened and endangered birds, including the Florida Scrub-Jay, the White-crowned Pigeon, and the Red-cockaded Woodpecker. In addition to his work in avian ecology, one of his primary interests is the many affects on birds from increasing urbanization both locally and worldwide. He is the editor of two books, including the recently published and acclaimed “Avian Ecology and Conservation in an Urbanizing World.” In his lecture he will discuss the impacts of Florida’s rapid growth on the Scrub-Jay and how habitat loss and fragmentation has affected its populations. Bowman will also talk about the bird’s gregarious nature -- eating peanuts out of the hands of well-meaning people -- and how this practice often causes malnutrition in the offspring of Scrub-Jays.

Come hear Dr. Bowman talk about this amazing bird, and the soon-to-be released Florida Scrub-Jay Recovery Plan. For more information, contact Misty Alderman at the Oxbow Eco-Center at 785-5842 or send email to aldermam@stlucieco.gov.