In a forest of Colombia, a multi-colored hen waited its flip to strategy the hen feeder. When it lastly got here shut, the onlooking scientists have been shocked.
On its left facet, the green honeycreeper bird had the “grass green” coloring of a feminine — however on its proper facet, it had the “aqua blue” coloring of a male, in accordance with a examine revealed Dec. 8 within the Journal of Field Ornithology.
Researchers recognized it as a particularly uncommon case of bilateral gynandromorphy.
“Bilateral gynandromorphy is the condition in which one side of an organism exhibits male characters and the other female,” the examine mentioned. “The phenomenon is thought to arise as a result of an error during egg meiosis (cell division), with subsequent double fertilization by separate sperm.”
Photos present the half-male, half-female inexperienced honeycreeper. Its coloring is distinctly break up down the center of its physique. The division isn’t excellent, and some feathers bleed onto the opposite facet.
“It is very striking; I was very privileged to see it,” Hamish Spencer, the examine’s lead creator, instructed the University of Otago in a Dec. 12 information launch.
Researchers noticed, photographed and filmed the uncommon hen for 21 months between October 2021 and June 2023, the examine mentioned. During this time, it frequented a feeding station in Villamaría, permitting researchers to check its conduct.
The distinctive inexperienced honeycreeper “was inclined to be a loner,” researchers mentioned. It prevented different inexperienced honeycreepers and infrequently waited till others left earlier than approaching feeding stations. But it was “not differentially harassed” by different birds.
A brief video shared by researchers on figshare exhibits the rare bird watching its environment.
Researchers mentioned it was “impossible to tell” what the half-male, half-female hen’s inner anatomy was however, based mostly on different examples, they anticipated its organs to match its exterior coloring.
Similarly, they might not inform if the uncommon hen was in a position to reproduce however doubted it might based mostly on its basic avoidance of different inexperienced honeycreepers.
Other bilateral gynandromorph birds have been seen in secure mating pairs, reproducing and behaviorally functioning as each men and women, the examine mentioned. These behaviors sometimes diverse with every individual hen.
“Many birdwatchers could go their whole lives and not see a bilateral gynandromorph in any species of bird,” Spencer mentioned. “The phenomenon is extremely rare in birds.”
Researchers mentioned whereas that is the second time the phenomenon has been documented in a inexperienced honeycreeper, it marks the primary such discovery in “a living bird.”
The analysis staff included John Murillo, Edwin Campbell-Thompson, Thomas Bishop, Caroline Beck and Hamish Spencer.
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