Peter Ewin wrote
Has anyone on this group come across this before with these species (or any
others) where an obvious hybrid has sucessfully bred with a member of one
its parents species?
Back in the 1980s there were two birds hanging around Pt Lookout on
Stadbroke Island which presented an even stranger case. I took lots of notes
on these birds because of the interest they generated.
One of these was an obvious Pied x Grey Butcherbird hybrid. It showed mixed
characters of the two putative parents. It was seen more than once, but not
over a long period, as extensive later searches failed to find it.
The other bird was a good bit larger, and clearly had Magpie in it. For the
most part, it looked like a Magpie x Pied Butcherbird hybrid, but showed
some characters which didn't fit that mould - eg a grey back. It was seen
many times over a long period and was photographed (not by me - was it Mick
Atzeni?).
When I first saw these birds, they were closely associating and could both
be found consistently in one part of the Pt Lookout township.
The simplest explanation for the parentage of the second bird was that it
was the child of the first bird and a Magpie. IE a trihybrid! From memory,
both Pied and Grey Butcherbirds were common around Pt Lookout, but Magpies
were scarce.
I think when I asked around about this I was told that tryhybrids are known
in at least ducks and finches, but only in captivity? Anyone know the answer
to that?
Cheers, Chris Corben.
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