scrub jay

American  

noun

1. a crestless jay, Aphelocoma coerulescens, of the western and southern U.S. and Mexico, having blue and grayish plumage.

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Etymology

Origin of scrub jay

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scrub jay

Last September, Rep. Mooney, of the Keys, introduced his bill in support of the flamingo and the scrub jay.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026

They include the black bear, Western scrub jay, California flannel brush, California bumble bee, California halibut, Northern elephant seal, Dungeness crab, California bay tree, Western spadefoot toad, and the endangered black abalone.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 9, 2023

The same cannot be said of the Florida scrub jay, described by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as the sole bird species found only in Florida.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 5, 2021

A professor at Cambridge, she has built her career around the remarkable behavior of the scrub jay, a small blue-black bird that stores food for later.

From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2021

And the birds — the wrentit, the scrub jay, the sage sparrow — taking flight to . . . where exactly?

From Washington Post ● Nov. 16, 2018