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This Bird Has Amazed Biologists - But Its Discovery Is Tragic
They've never seen anything like it!
Maxim Sorokopud
11.13.18

Someone recently stumbled upon a bird that has amazed the scientific faculty of one of the world’s greatest colleges.

One day in May, Lowell Burkett went bird watching in the Appalachian region of Pennsylvania. Over the years, he had become used to the variety of birds that call the climate home. His hobby was usually a relaxing past time.

But on this day, he spotted a type of bird he’d never seen before.

Biology Letters/Lowell Burkett
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Biology Letters/Lowell Burkett

But also, it looked weirdly familiar.

Upon closer inspection, he could see that the bird was definitely a warbler, but it was like no other warbler he’d ever observed. Visually, it looked like a cross between the golden-winged and blue-winged warbler. That meant that it was a hybrid, which does occur sometimes.

But it was something else that told Burkett that this was a very strange bird.

When it sang, it produced a noise that didn’t belong to either the golden-winged or blue-winged warbler. Instead, it sounded more like the chestnut-sided warbler.

This was very strange and not something that Burkett had ever heard about. He did the only thing that he could think to do. He captured a video of the strange creature and contacted the experts.

The nearest center of expertise to Burkett was The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. He sent them a detailed email and waited for an update.

Shortly after, a researcher came to visit Burkett.

The researcher asked him to go to the point where he’d spotted the bird.

Luckily, the researcher and Burkett were able to find the bird once more. The researcher took some blood samples, recorded other data and went back to his college.

Cornell University/Lowell Burkett
Source:
Cornell University/Lowell Burkett

The researcher then analyzed his samples and discovered something amazing.

The bird was a hybrid of three different warbler species. This is something that had never been seen before.

What must have happened is that a Brewster’s warbler, which is already a hybrid of the blue-winged and golden-winged warbler, mated with a chestnut-sided warbler, which is not a hybrid. In all of ornithological history, this combination of hybrid and non-hybrid together had never been previously seen.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology
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Cornell Lab of Ornithology

But this bird, while amazing, has tragic implications for the future of the golden-winged warbler.

The biologists at Cornell speculate that this unique hybridization is occurring because the golden-winged warbler is slowly going extinct.

David Toews, who is a postdoctoral associate of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology said, “That this hybridization occurred within a population of golden-winged warblers in significant decline suggests that females may be making the best of a bad situation.”

Lowell Burkett/Cornell University
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Lowell Burkett/Cornell University

The remaining golden-winged warblers are now mating with the hybrids in a previously unseen attempt for survival.

Anyone who knows anything about mules or other hybrid animals knows that, generally, these animals are infertile. But that doesn’t appear to be the case with hybrid warblers. However, it’s currently unknown whether or not this new triple hybrid is able to reproduce.

If it isn’t fertile, then it could mean the eventual end of the warbler bird.

The scientists at Cornell will be keeping track of this new bird to see if it is able to produce offspring. Hopefully, it is, and the warbler bird does have a future after all.

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Source: Science Alert

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