A new parrot with shiny golden feathers will surprise the experts

When researchers found a parrot with shiny golden feathers, they thought at first that a new species had been discovered, but what they discovered was unusual.

The bird – found in the Cordillera Azul National Park in the Peruvian Andes – is a previously undocumented hybrid of two different species native to western South America: the Pink-throated Brilliant hummingbird, Heliodoxa gularis, and the Rufous-webbed Brilliant. Heliodoxa branickii. Published earlier this year in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the researchers say the discovery opens the door to many questions about hybridization.

Different hummingbird species are genetically distinct and do not interbreed with each other, according to a news release about the study from the Chicago Museum, but “hybrids break that rule.” The hummingbird’s distribution is unknown to researchers, but it may be a driver of the color change.

“It is not clear how common the species of hummingbirds like the one in this study are, but the researchers speculate that hybrids like these may contribute to the different colors found in the hummingbird family tree.”

A gold-throated hybrid, center, with its parent species H. branickii (left) and H. gularis (right).

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Both the Pink-throated Brilliant hummingbird and the Rufous-webbed Brilliant hummingbird have bright pink throats, so researchers wanted to understand how the two combined could produce a golden-throated hummingbird.

According to the press release, it is rare in the hummingbird family for members of the same species to have very different throat colors, which is why scientists were surprised when the birds’ DNA matched.

“Sometimes the mixtures are strange or sterile, like mail; in some cases, hybrids can create new species,” the report reads.

Using the rate of color evolution seen in hummingbirds, researchers estimate that it would take 6-10 million years for this intense pink-gold color change to occur in one species.

“I looked at this bird and I said to myself, ‘This is unlike anything else. “My first thought was, it was a new species,” said John Bates, the study’s senior author and the Field Museum’s ornithologist.

So, how did this strange bird come to be? The answer has to do with “the complex mechanisms by which bright plumage colors appear,” according to the Field Museum.

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According to the Field Museum, feathers get their basic color from pigments, such as melanin (black) and carotidnoids (red and yellow), but hummingbirds’ are iridescent, meaning their color depends on how light is bent and filtered. as the feathers flutter. cells at different angles. Color changing iridescence is the result of structural color, where light interacts with micro- or nano-structures in an organism.

“It’s like cooking: if you mix salt and water, you know what you’re going to get, but combining two complex recipes can produce unexpected results,” said Field Museum research scientist Chad Eliason.

“This hybrid is a mixture of two complex feathering techniques from two parent species.”

14 facts about hummingbirds

Hundreds of species: There are currently 363 known species, but that number continues to grow as new species are identified, according to the Hattiesburg American, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Only in America: Ants are not found anywhere else in the world except the Americas. However, this may not always have been the case. 30 million years ago the aurochs lived in what is now Poland and Germany.
Smallest birds in the world: Hummingbirds as a family are the smallest birds in the world, but not all are equal. The bee hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world weighing only 2 grams. For comparison, a pen weighs 2.5 grams.
Cold sleepers: A guinea pig’s body temperature is about 104 degrees, but that can drop at night. They go into hibernation-like state when they sleep and their body temperature is recorded as 38 degrees.
Spiders help build nests: Wasps build nests using lichens and move in soft plant material, but they depend on spiders to provide building materials. These birds use the silk from the spider’s web to attach other objects.
Growing nests: As a result, hummingbirds are used to build their nests, they are flexible and expand as the young birds grow to cope with the increase in size.
Small eggs: Hummingbirds lay two eggs and they are about the size of a Tic Tac.
Long-distance travelers: Ants can travel thousands of kilometers during migration. Ruby-throated hummingbirds have the longest flight range of all hummingbirds and travel 500-600 miles non-stop over the Gulf of Mexico.
They don’t eat amazingly: Hummingbirds have a huge appetite and eat twice their weight in food every day. To put that in perspective, that’s the equivalent of someone eating 1,200 1/4-pound hamburger patties every day.
Spiders help feed hummingbirds, too: In addition to nectar, these birds eat small flying insects and some of them prefer spider webs.