When I was on Ashmore Reef last year, I came across a nest with a pair
of reef egret chicks - one was a grey morph and the other was a white
morph . They seemed to be the same size, and I assumed they were
siblings, rather than one chick visiting another.
Regards, Laurie.
On Friday, February 23, 2007, at 02:57 PM, Dave Torr wrote:
Thanks - exposing my ignorance further - do different colour morphs
interbreed?
On 23/02/07, L&L Knight < > wrote:
G'day Dave,
Consider the Eastern Reef Egrets and Grey Goshawks that both have grey
and white morphs. Similarly, many sea birds have pale, intermediate
and dark morphs.
It's a bit like people having different hair, skin and eye colours. I
think we place too much emphasis on bird plumage, which is why we get
so thrown by immature, moulting and leucoplastic birds. Just a bit of
different colour can get us thinking we are seeing a different species
...
Regards, Laurie.
On Friday, February 23, 2007, at 02:30 PM, Dave Torr wrote:
> Maybe I'm missing something (and I'm no expert on DNA!). The
reference
> on "splits" shows a number of what I have always thought of as "good"
> species anyway, with no indication of what they have been split from
> (or what has been split from them).
>
> And the DNA lumps shows Blue-winged Teal and Cinnamon Teal to be 100%
> similar - yet visually at least they are very different...... Since
as
> a "layman" I assumed DNA controlled the appearance of an animal how
> can this be the case?
>
> Please excuse the ignorance but I would love someone to explain in
> simple terms.....
>
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