Biologists Discover Extremely Rare Bird That Has Male Parts On One Side And Female On The Other

An extremely rare bird that has both male and female feather colouring was recently discovered by researchers in Pennsylvania.

Rose-breasted grosbeaks are sexually dimorphic, meaning males and females have different colour plumage. Male grosbeaks are known to have black wing feathers, pink wing pits and breast spots which give the bird its name, while females have brown wings, yellow wing pits and no patches on their chests.

Facebook

Biologists at Powdermill Nature Reserve however, found a grosbeak that was split in the middle. It was pink on the right side and yellow on the left (from the bird's perspective).

The bird has both male and female attributes. It has one testis and other male characteristics on one half of its body and an ovary and other female characteristics on the other.

Also Read: Man Remains Stuck On His Property With 200 Birds Since It's Technically 'Illegal¡¯ For Him To Leave

This happens when two sperms fertilise an egg that has two nuclei instead of one. The result is the egg developing a chromosome from each sex. The condition is called bilateral gynandromorphism, as explained in a post by Powdermill Nature Reserve.

¡®In Powdermill Bird Banding¡¯s nearly 60 year history, we¡¯ve caught less than ten of these extraordinary birds, the most recent of which was a Rose-breasted Grosbeak that we banded today. This bird was aged as an after-hatching-year, meaning it hatched last year at the earliest¡¯, the post mentions.

Also Read: These Parrots Had To Be Removed From Public Display Because They Started Swearing At Visitors

Facebook

One person on the team described seeing the bird as "seeing a unicorn."

The bird had not yet developed its breeding plumage when "it's going to be even more starkly male, female," Annie Lindsay, bird banding program manager, reportedly said. The colours then will be more prominent and "the line between male and female side will be even more obvious.

The rose-breasted grosbeaks are found across eastern North America. This time of the year they migrate to Mexico or South America.