Meet the “grue jay,” a rare offspring of a blue jay and a green jay—two common species whose evolutionary separation took place 7 million years ago. A lucky findIn the spring of 2023, Stokes stumbled upon a “grainy” photo of a bird that resembled a blue jay but was “clearly different,” he explained. Their investigation confirmed that the bird was the male hybrid offspring of a green jay mother and a blue jay father. So far, similar hybrids like the “grolar bear” or the “coywolf” have emerged mainly as a product of direct human influence, such as the introduction of invasive species, Stokes said. It’s possible that, as climate change progresses, we will see more of these unlikely unions in nature, they added.