Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

In 2009, two friends and I visited South Central Florida to do some birding and herping. One bright, neck-burning morning in the pine flatwoods, our trio became a quintet. Two Florida scrub jays joined us, keeping pace through the trailside shrubs while vocalizing their…displeasure, perhaps, or curiosity? When we came to a fork, my friends and I consulted a paper map while the two jays perched in a nearby shrub and studied us. I looked up from the map to return the favor. The jays I knew best were blue jays, those loud lookers in dazzling blue tuxedo suits. These scrub jays had a lovely mix of color – cornflower blue, cobalt, sky blue, ash, cream – but appeared comparatively dull. I recall thinking something along the lines of, “I guess I’m more of a blue jay guy.” 🤦 Older and wiser 😂, I now appreciate Florida scrub jays much more. Their voice is every bit as brazen as their blue jay relative and their plumage palette is similar, but they wear their colors in a more understated way; I regard them as subtly gorgeous birds. Also, I now live in a part of the world preoccupied with fire ecology, and the plight of the federally-endangered Florida scrub jay is instructive. The species is habitat-dependent, surviving only in flatwood forest with abundant low-growing scrub. That requires fire. In the absence of burns, ecological succession results in forests that are too dense and tall, forcing the jays out. The Florida scrub jay population is in acute decline, threatened most by rampant development in Florida, the related habitat fragmentation, and fire suppression.

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.