Hybridization in birds, a sign of a world in transition
Naturalist and President of SPYGEN
Published on Reading time: 2 min
Benjamin Allegrini, naturalist and entrepreneur Franck Ferville for La Croix
The encounter between a blue jay and a green jay... It could be a fable, recounted in his weekly column by naturalist Benjamin Allegrini. It's a very real hybridization, a symbol of the effects of climate change.
La Croix gives you the opportunity to offer this item to your loved ones for free.
Subscribe to La Croix and offer this article to your loved ones for free.
I subscribeTexas, suburb of San Antonio. The sun is already high. The tarmac pulses with heat at the edge of the city, a bird of impossible colors crosses the sky. Blue like a Cyanocitta , green like a Cyanocorax . Its wings crumple the light, tracing a hesitant trajectory, as if it were still searching for the tongue to beat. This is not a chimera from a naturalist's dream. It is a very real being, it is the first known hybrid between the blue jay Cyanocitta cristata of the temperate forests and the green jay Cyanocorax yncas from the tropics. An unprecedented observation on which a team of American researchers has focused, publishing their work last month (1).
This article is reserved for subscribers
La Croıx
