I hear the sound of a can of worms being opened!
Simon there are many definitions of species, to suit specific
'species concepts'. There are different species concepts that are
preferred for different phyla.
For birds the two most prevalent species concept are the Biological
Species Concept (BSC) after Mayr, and the Phylogenetic Species
Concept (PSC) after Cracraft.
BSC species = "groups of interbreeding populations reproductively
isolated from other such groups"
PSC species = "the smallest diagnosable cluster of organisms within
which there is a parental pattern of ancestry and descent"
Historically the BSC could use the ability to hybridise or not as an
indicator of species, but I think it's a while since anyone thought
that was a reliable indicator, as Nikolas has pointed out.
Re the owls. It is possible that the morphological differences are a
red herring - there could be an environmental 'switch' (e.g. the
climate / habitats that prevail in Tassie and NZ) that cause a
particular morphology that exists widely within the gene pool of the
population to prevail. This could be tested by moving Qld birds to
Tassie and see what they look like after a couple of generations
(I've not looked at any of the papers by the way, just flying a
theoretical kite!)
Cheers
mjh
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