Scientists noticed a uncommon half-male, half-female Green Honeycreeper in Colombia, providing vital insights into avian biology and intercourse differentiation. Photos of a bilaterally gynandromorphic Green Honeycreeper close to Manizales, Colombia, 20 May 2022. Credit: John Murillo
A hanging and intensely uncommon half-female, half-male fowl has been noticed by a University of Otago zoologist.
Sesquicentennial Distinguished Professor Hamish Spencer was holidaying in Colombia when an beginner ornithologist John Murillo identified a wild Green Honeycreeper with distinct half-green, or feminine, and half-blue, male, plumage.
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Sighting
“Many birdwatchers could go their whole lives and not see a bilateral gynandromorph in any species of bird. The phenomenon is extremely rare in birds, I know of no examples from New Zealand ever.
“It is very striking, I was very privileged to see it,” Professor Spencer says.
Photographs of the fowl make the invention much more vital as they’re “arguably the best of a wild bilateral gynandromorphic bird of any species ever.”
Gynandromorphism: A Window into Avian Biology
A report on the discover, solely the second recorded instance of gynandromorphism within the species in additional than 100 years, has simply been printed within the Journal of Field Ornithology.
Professor Spencer says gynandromorphs – animals with each female and male traits in a species that often have separate sexes – are necessary for our understanding of intercourse willpower and sexual habits in birds.
The essential teams by which the phenomenon has been recorded embody animal species which function sturdy sexual dimorphism; most frequently bugs, particularly butterflies, crustaceans, spiders, even lizards, and rodents.
“This particular example of bilateral gynandromorphy – male one side and female the other – shows that, as in several other species, either side of the bird can be male or female.
“The phenomenon arises from an error during female cell division to produce an egg, followed by double-fertilization by two sperm,” he explains.
He hopes the novel discovery will encourage individuals to “treasure exceptions” as they at all times reveal one thing fascinating.
“Be always on the lookout for oddities – who will find the first New Zealand example of a bilateral gynandromorph in a bird?”
Reference: “Report of bilateral gynandromorphy in a Green Honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza) from Colombia” by John Murillo, Edwin Campbell-Thompson, Thomas F. Bishop, Caroline W. Beck and Hamish G. Spencer, 2023, Journal of Field Ornithology.
DOI: 10.5751/JFO-00392-940412
