A bird with blue feathers on its back and tail and white spots on its wings, similar to those of a blue jay. But at the same time he missed the typical pointed crown of a blue jay and had a spot above his eye, which in turn is a clear sign of a green jay or incagaai. When the researchers noticed the animal, he followed a swarm of blue jays and also made similar sounds. At the same time, he also produced the clicks and rattling sounds of a green jay.
DNA research revealed that the researchers had found a ‘hybrid’ bird. A cross between a blue jay and a green jay, something that had never been observed in the wild before.
The habitats of both birds have only been overlapping over the past ten years. The blue jay, which mainly occurs in the east of the US, is possible due to the urbanization and the use of feed bins in gardens, more to the west. In the meantime, the higher temperatures in Texas have made the region ‘hospitable’ for tropical species such as the green Gaai, which normally mainly in South and Central America. The ‘hybrid’ copy was found in the Texan city of San Antonio, an overlap area.
Climate change
“We think that this is the first vertebrate who is ‘hybridized’ as a result of the fact that two species have expanded their habitat, at least partly as a result of climate change,” said Brian Stokes, doctoral student at the University of Texas in Austin and main author of the study This month it was published in the magazine Ecology and Evolution.
“Species that have not come into contact with each other for millions of years now suddenly come into contact with each other. We think that this is probably the result of human factors, such as climate change and changes in their living environment,” says Timothy Keitt, co -author of the study and professor of biology at Texas University.
Gavin M. Leighton, senior lecturer in Biology at Buffalo State University in New York, who was not involved in the research, was somewhat surprised by the mating. Scientists, he explained, often assume that hybridization comes from a case of changing identity, or two birds that do not realize that they mate with a member of a different species. According to Leighton, this could not have been the case. “Both species form long -term social ties with a partner,” he said. “We would expect that they are pretty picky about whom they mate.”
Under pressure
Moreover, crow -like (which both contain racing types belong) are extremely smart, and blue and green jays look pretty different. They should have no trouble distinguishing themselves from each other. Maybe Leighton speculates, it was the end of the breeding season and the birds were under pressure. “If they are not lucky in finding a copy of their own kind that also has no partner, then it might be greater that they will make a mistake,” he concluded.