Hybrid Jaybirds and the Genesis Kinds

My wife was a lover of blue jays in our area, and talked to them like they were pets. I told her about their cousins the scrub jays that live out west. Very recently, I learned about green jays which live in southwest North America. Thrill jaybirds by giving them peanuts (in the shell) and hazelnuts.

Although the ranges of blue and green jays are separate, a couple got romantic and a hybrid of the blue and green jay was born in Texas. Not just different species, but up one level as different genera.

Blue (a), hybrid (b), green (c) jays, WikiComm / B.R. Stokes and T.H. Keitt (CC BY 4.0)

Jaybirds are intelligent, along with other corvids like crows, ravens, magpies, and the like.

The fact that this hybridization happened brings up the concept of the biblical created kinds. Some folks believe that kind is another word for species, but that is not the case. (Conventional scientists often disagree on definitions of species.) Biblical kinds are similar to the family level in biological classification. Interestingly, this hybridization has implications for young-earth creation and against evolution!

Scientists were surprised when a homeowner reported an unusual type of jaybird. The bird was found to be a hybrid. Hybridization occurs when two separate species interbreed. In this case, the hybrid was a cross between a female Green Jay (Cyanocorax yncas, aka Inca jay) and a male Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata). These two jays are not just separate ‘species’, but different genera (singular: genus).

The mating had clearly occurred in the wild; the territories of both species were known to have been expanding for some time, eventually overlapping. Previously, they rarely if ever came into contact.

You can read the rest by taking flight over to "Blue Jay × Green Jay hybrid."