Florida Scrub-Jay Demography and Dispersal in a Fragmented Landscape

Abstract

I measured population dynamics and cooperative breeding in an isolated population of Florida Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens) on an urban barrier island in southern Brevard County, Florida. In 1992, the scrub-jay population consisted of 29 breeding pairs within six population clusters that comprised two subpopulations. By 1998, the pop- ulation declined to 10 pairs in four clusters because of poor reproductive success. The fre- quency of breeding by one-year-olds was related to the availability of breeding vacancies that increased as the population declined. Nearly half of the breeding vacancies were filled