Researchers from the Carnegie National Museum of Natural History found a rare occurrence in the natural world: a Bird who is male on one side and female on the other at the Powdermill Nature Reserve in Rector, Pennsylvania.
The Bird they found and banded was a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus), a seed-eating Bird. The males have red feathers on their wings, while the females have yellow, so imagine their surprise when the scientists found that this Bird had both colors on both wings.
LIKE A UNICORN
The researchers shared that it was like “seeing a unicorn”. The Bird was a rare example of a bilateral gynandromorph, which are genetically part male and part female.
In the case of the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, the split is in the middle, seeing that there were two different colors on the wings, and their breast had a mix of the male and female features.
According to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Avian Research Center recorded only 10 bilateral gynandromorphs in the wild.
Annie Lindsay, bird banding program manager at Powdermill, said that “Bilateral gynandromorphism, while very uncommon, is normal and provides an excellent example of a fascinating genetic process that few people ever encounter.”
CAN THEY CREATE OFFSPRING?
Avian scientists now wants to determine if this bird can reproduce. They saw that the left side of the Bird has the ovary, and usually for birds only the left ovary is functional, so theoretically the Bird can mate.
But there might be an issue in looking for a mate because of their male side, as there is a possibility that the Bird might sing like a male, which could make other male Birds territorial.
