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Lowell Burket, a regular contributor to the ornithological website eBird, was enjoying his usual bird watching time in his Pennsylvania garden when he noticed something very unusual.
Burkett noticed that there was close to home a warbler bird that looked like a brown-breasted warbler but that had the physical characteristics of a blue-and-gold-winged warbler.
After several more observations, Burket recorded a video of the bird and sent it to Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
A week later, David Toews, a researcher at Cornell, went to take samples from the bird to see what the warbler was exactly hybrid.
Genetic analysis revealed that the bird was a hybrid of three different species. species of warbler.
"We looked at the genes that code for different colors of warbler," Toews said. Cornell Chronicle. "Thus, we could recreate the hybrid mother's aspect: the avian equivalent of the detective's facial composite, but generated from genes. We confirmed that the mother would have looked like a Brewster's Warbler and that the father was a Brown-sided Warbler. "
Toews published his findings in the study in the journal Letters of biology.
Hybridization between the Golden-winged Warbler and the Blue-winged Warbler is not uncommon. But what makes the warbler such a novel discovery is that there has never been a hybrid coupling of Brown-sided Warblers and Blue-and-Gold Warblers previously recorded.
The bird could have been the result of a small pond mating and hybridization was therefore a necessity.
"The fact that this hybridization occurred within a population in significant decline of the Golden-winged Warbler suggests that females make the most of a bad situation," said Toews. "It also tells us that wood warblers in general have remained genetically compatible long after they have evolved significantly in appearance."
Researchers will continue to monitor the new hybrid to see if its genetic mix will hinder potential partners or if the male will continue to breed.
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By Kay Vandette, Earth.com Editor
Image Credit: Lowell Burket, Cornell University
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