A rare specimen of a half-male and half-female bird sighted in Colombia

2024-01-04 21:38:21

A group of researchers has sighted a rare specimen of the wild green honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza) in Colombia. half male and half female which presented the typical plumage of both sexes, the second sighting of such a bird but the first in a hundred years, according to the investigation.

The teacher Hamish Spencer from the University of Otago (New Zealand) and the Colombian amateur ornithologist John Murillo They have published their research in the ‘Journal of Field Ornithology’, where they specify that they were able to corroborate the discovery thanks to color photographs and a short video recorded in Villamaría, in the department of Caldas, in the center of the country.

It is a “bilateral gynandromorphy”: The bird had typical male plumage on the right side and female plumage on the left, that is, it was half green -specific feathers for females- and half blue -typical male plumage-.

«The beak appeared to be consistent with male colorationalthough the lower left part of the jaw was possibly a duller yellow,” the experts explain.

This bird is native to Mexico, Central and South America, measures about 14 centimeters and weighs about 17 grams. Also has a marked sexual dimorphismthat is, males and females are very different.

«It was present for at least 21 months – between October 2021 and June 2023 -, and its behavior largely coincided with that of other wild C. spiza, although often I waited for them to leave to feed of the fruit that the owners of the farm placed daily,” the researchers add.

«Female plumage is possible on both sides, a conclusion supported by the double fertilization model of bilateral gynandromorphy,” the researchers conclude.