Volunteers are Providing the Data Needed to Manage Florida’s Endemic Bird

Florida Scrub-Jays are birds of strong opinions. They live only in Florida, they breed only in the Florida scrub habitat, and they can survive only in habitat that has been kept open by fire (or brush mowers—more on that later). Individual birds are also known to have strong personalities, which people often describe as dramatic, flashy, or entertaining.

Their habitat—the Florida scrub—is equally idiosyncratic. It too only exists in Florida. Searing hot in the day, sitting atop sandy soil that doesn’t hold water, and historically lit on fire every 15-20 years by lightning and Indigenous people, you might think it would be barren of life. But like the Florida Scrub-Jay, at least 40 species of plants, eight species of vertebrates, and 40 species of invertebrates exist only in the Florida scrub. A whole community of dwarfed oaks, rosemary, lichens, and other plants has adapted specifically to the scrub environment, many of which are federally endangered. It is one of North America’s most overlooked biodiversity hotspots.

Scrub-jays evolved an intimate relationship with fire over two million years. Frequent fire helps scrub oaks produce acorns, which are a key food source for scrub-jays. Fire maintains sandy openings that scrub-jays need to store their acorns in. And fire keeps scrub oaks short enough for scrub-jays to use and deters taller trees that predators use.

The specialized traits that enable scrub-jays to survive imperiled them when their habitat changed.  During the 19^th century, vast swaths of the Florida scrub were destroyed for agriculture and development and the life-sustaining fires were suppressed. When scrub habitat stops burning, scrub-jays inevitably disappear. Because of habitat loss and fire suppression, the Florida Scrub-Jay population has declined by 90 percent since the early 1900s and was federally declared threatened in 1987.

Today, 70 percent of Florida Scrub-Jays live at one of four large habitat strongholds: Ocala National Forest, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and Archbold Biological Station. The remaining 30 percent survive in small, scattered fragments of scrub habitat on public land across central Florida. Protecting that 30 percent is crucial to the species’ survival but challenging to achieve. Some managers of these small habitat parcels lack the capacity to monitor the scrub-jays on them, and good monitoring is essential for good management.

Introducing Jay Watch

In 2002, this problem caught the attention of The Nature Conservancy. They responded by creating Jay Watch, a community science program that trains volunteers to monitor scrub-jays on properties that lack the capacity to do so. In 2011, Jay Watch was transferred to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and in 2012, it was transferred to Audubon Florida, which has managed it since. The goal of the program is to provide land managers with the data they need to restore and maintain viable scrub-jay populations on small properties.

To do this, teams of volunteers survey the scrub-jays at 46-50 sites each year. After scrub-jay chicks fledge (which happens to be in the peak of Florida’s sweltering summers), volunteers spend three days at each site inventorying the populations there. They count the number of families, map their territories, measure their reproductive success, and provide a total population count.

Once the data have been collected, they need to be turned into useful products for land managers. Audrey DeRose-Wilson, director of bird conservation for Audubon Florida and the coordinator of Jay Watch, takes on that task. For each property surveyed, she creates a map of the scrub-jay territories and the composition of adults and juveniles per family.

Because scrub-jays are such good indicators of habitat health, areas that they aren’t using tell the managers that it’s probably time to knock back the trees and taller shrubs getting established there. Ideally, managers do this by conducting prescribed burns, but in many areas surrounded by buildings and roads, this isn’t possible. In those places, managers use brush mowers to mimic the effects of fire. Jay Watch data also indicate whether the site’s scrub-jay population and its reproductive success are increasing or decreasing, which indicates the health of the habitat.

After 25 years, Jay Watch data have been shaping management decisions long enough to affect scrub-jay populations. One notable example unfolded at the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway, a state park. In 2001, the state purchased a 446-acre property adjacent to the greenway. Having gone unburned for many years, the property no longer had suitable scrub-jay habitat. Shockingly, a state employee discovered eight scrub-jays living on the property. Laurie Dolan, a Florida Department of Environmental Protection environmental specialist who helps manage the greenway, began restoring scrub-jay habitat in the hopes of saving this dwindling population. To guide the effort, she requested help from Jay Watch to inventory the unexpected population of threatened birds.

Each time Dolan’s team restored another tract of scrub habitat, Jay Watch volunteers were able to track how the scrub-jays responded. “The volunteers have been critical for us. I can’t tell you how important they’ve been from the very beginning,” she says. With five teams of volunteers, they’re able to survey the entire 1,000-acre site in three days. “We wouldn’t be able to do that with just our own staff,” she says. Over twenty years of management and monitoring, Dolan and her team have grown the scrub-jay population from eight to more than 100.

In 2025, about 150 volunteers participated in Jay Watch surveys, collectively contributing more than 1,200 hours of work. By providing this data to land managers who wouldn’t otherwise have them, Jay Watch is helping them maintain a network of habitat parcels that a third of the species population depends on. “They're depending on the volunteers, and I certainly couldn't cover this ground in this short amount of time,” says DeRose-Wilson. She also shares Jay Watch data with the state of Florida, where they inform species management plans across the state. Cities and counties also use the data when grappling with management decisions at specific sites.

More Than Data

Monitoring endangered wildlife populations is a standard practice, but relying on a team of volunteers to do so is not. In addition to bolstering capacity, engaging volunteers builds societal support that scrub-jays need. DeRose-Wilson explains, “They come, they get invested, they learn about conservation, and they take that information back into their communities and share it with all the people they know.” That outreach has supported real-world outcomes in several instances.

In 2024, the construction of a golf course was proposed on Jonathan Dickinson State Park, which holds an important scrub-jay population. Jay Watch volunteers joined an organized effort to protest the proposal and lobby their elected officials. Thanks to the public pushback, the golf course was never built.

In eastern Florida, Malabar Scrub Sanctuary went years without active management. As a result, it became densely overgrown and its scrub-jay population died out. In 2023, a group of recreational mountain bikers opposed Brevard County’s plan to cut the trees to restore scrub habitat. Jay Watch volunteers attended community meetings and explained the need to cut trees. Eventually, restoration went forward and scrub-jays returned to the sanctuary.

Although Florida Scrub-Jays have a geographically small population, they represent a conservation challenge that is common across the world. Like countless species today, they live in an ecosystem that has been drastically altered by humans. Restoring the populations means taking drastic steps—like cutting trees and lighting fires—to restore the ecosystems that they depend on. These restoration efforts are limited not only by data, but also by social support. Jay Watch is an example of a way to generate both.

Even though Jay Watch surveys require walking for hours in the sun during the hottest part of Florida’s summers, the volunteers are driven by its mission. Yes, some volunteers drop out after their first survey, but others come back for years. Ken Larsson, a Jay Watch volunteer, gets up at 4:30 am to drive to the surveys. “It's pretty tiring, but it's a good type of tired,” he says. “I feel very satisfied at the end that I've done something positive.”

If you’re interested in becoming a Jay Watch volunteer, sign up here!