Extremely Rare Bird Captured on Film
Published:18 Jan.2024 Source:University of Otago
A striking and extremely rare half female, half male bird has been spotted by a University of Otago zoologist. Sesquicentennial Distinguished Professor Hamish Spencer was holidaying in Colombia when an amateur ornithologist John Murillo pointed out a wild Green Honeycreeper with distinct half green, or female, and half blue, male, plumage.
Photographs of the bird make the discovery even more significant as they are "arguably the best of a wild bilateral gynandromorphic bird of any species ever." This is the second recorded example of gynandromorphism in the species in more than 100 years. The phenomenon arises from an error during female cell division to produce an egg, followed by double-fertilization by two sperm.
The main groups in which the phenomenon has been recorded include animal species which feature strong sexual dimorphism; most often insects, especially butterflies, crustaceans, spiders, even lizards and rodents. Animals with both male and female characteristics in a species that usually have separate sexes -- are important for people’s understanding of sex determination and sexual behaviour in birds.