He Had His Father's Voice: Tracking A Rare Bird Hybrid
Short Wave
October 27, 202212:10 AM ET
Aaron Scott, photographed for NPR, 6 June 2022, in Washington DC. Photo by Farrah Skeiky for NPR.
AARON SCOTT
Margaret Cirino, photographed for NPR, 6 June 2022, in Washington DC. Photo by Farrah Skeiky for NPR.
MARGARET CIRINO
Scarlet Tanager perches on a branch. In the Neversink Mounatin Preserve in Lower Alsace Township Tuesday afternoon June 22, 2021.
Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images
When Stephen Gosser heard the song of a scarlet tanager in the Pennsylvania woods near his home, he knew just what to look for: a bright-red bird with black wings. As a self-described "diehard birder," Gosser had seen and photographed plenty of them. But when he laid eyes on the singer, what he saw surprised him: a dark-colored head, black-and-white body, with a splash of red on its chest. "Well, that sort of looks like a first-year male rose-breasted grosbeak," he said, recounting the tale for Short Wave's Aaron Scott.
The song of one bird coming out of the body of another: it suggested that this little guy could be a rare hybrid. So Gosser enlisted the help of some pros, including biologist David Toews of Pennsylvania State University. Toews and his collaborators conducted a genetic analysis to see if this was truly the offspring of a scarlet tanager and a rose-breasted grosbeak – two species that diverged 10 million years ago, and today run in very different circles.
On today's episode, Gosser and Toews fill Aaron in on this avian mystery, and what hybrid animals can teach us about evolution.
You can find the birdsongs in this episode here.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S70426593
More:
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/26/1131701392/he-had-his-fathers-voice-tracking-a-rare-bird-hybrid