Two-colored bird, half male, half female

Colombia Experts came across a bird with the right side of its body being the typical blue of a male, while its left side was green like a female.

The hermaphrodite bird comes in two colors, green and blue. Photo: John Murillo

Chlorophanes spiza is a species of passerine bird ( Passeriformes ), the female has green plumage, while the male is blue. However, amateur ornithologist John Murillo photographed a special Chlorophanes spiza bird in the city of Caldas, Colombia, New Atlas reported on December 12. The right half of the animal is blue while the left half is green. From October 2021 to June 2023, people also encountered the animal many times at a station that provides fresh fruit and sugar water for local birds.

Murillo contacted Professor Hamish Spencer, a zoologist at the University of Otago, about the unusual bird. Spencer went to observe and study the creature himself. The new study was published in the Journal of Field Ornithology .

The bird in Murillo’s photograph is a rare example of bilateral hermaphroditism, in which one side of the organism exhibits male characteristics and the other side female characteristics. This phenomenon exists in many animal groups, especially those that are sexually dimorphic (the sexes differ significantly in appearance). In birds, the cause is thought to be a malfunction in the division of the egg, which then proceeds to double fertilization with two separate sperm.

The Caldas bicolor bird is only the second recorded case of bilateral hermaphroditism in the species Chlorophanes spiza . The previous case, recorded in 1914, involved an animal with blue on the left and green on the right.

Since the Caldas hermaphrodite bird was not captured, experts cannot tell whether it has the internal organs of both sexes. This possibility is possible because studies of some other birds with bilateral hermaphrodites have found that they have ovaries on one side and testicles on the other.

Most of the observed behavior of the Chlorophanes spiza bicolor appears to be relatively normal, although it tends to avoid other hermaphrodites, and they avoid it. Spencer says some of these hermaphrodites breed, while others do not. The Caldas bicolor has never been seen in pairs, so Spencer suspects it may not breed.

Thu Thao (According to New Atlas )

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