This Rare Bird is Male on One Side and Female on the Other
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:
This rare bird is male on one side and female on the other:
In Rector, Pa., researchers have spotted one strange bird.
This rose-breasted grosbeak has a pink breast spot and a pink wing pit" and black feathers on its right wing - telltale shades of males. On its left side, the songbird displays yellow and brown plumage, hues typical of females.
Annie Lindsay had been out capturing and banding birds with identification tags with her colleagues at Powdermill Nature Reserve in Rector on September 24 when a teammate hailed her on her walkie-talkie to alert her of the bird's discovery. Lindsay, who is banding program manager at Powdermill, immediately knew what she was looking at: a half-male, half-female creature known as a gynandromorph[*].
It was spectacular. This bird is in its nonbreeding [plumage], so in the spring when it's in its breeding plumage, it's going to be even more starkly male, female," Lindsay says. The bird's colors will become even more vibrant, and the line between the male and female side will be even more obvious."
In 64 years of bird banding, Powdermill's Avian Research Center has recorded fewer than 10 such birds. After marveling over their new find in the field, Lindsay and her colleagues took the rose-breasted grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus) to the laboratory, measured its wing span and plucked out four feathers to obtain its DNA for future studies. The team later took photographs and TikTok videos with the tiny feathery guest before letting it fly on its way.
[*] Gynandromorphism.
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