Rare bird: 'Half-male, half-female' cardinal snapped in Pennsylvania

A rare and fairly interesting bird was spotted in Pennsylvania recently. A Northern Cardinal with a very rare condition called Bilateral Gyandromorphism.

A large number of bird species are sexually dimorphic. Females and males have different colouration and physical chatacteristics.

Cardinals in particular have some fairly visually striking differences.

Males are a brilliant red colour.


Male Cardinal

While females are a pale whitish, beige brown colour.


Female Cardinal

Very rarely, birds are born with characteristics of both because of a mistake during cell division where an egg and its associated polar body are fertilized by separate sperm. In some species, with distinct visual differences between males and females as with cardinals, the results are pretty neat.


Bilateral Gynandromorphic Cardinal

Apart from colouration, these birds also have one working testi and ovary. In species with less distinct visual differences, it may be harder to notice such individuals, but the bright red of the male Cardinals and the paler white of the females makes them easier to spot.

www.bbc.com...

Though not unheard of, mixed sex birds are rare.

Male cardinals are bright red but females are pale brown, suggesting this specimen may be a mix of the two sexes.

Retired ornithologist Jamie Hill, 69, told the BBC it was a "once-in-a-lifetime, one-in-a-million encounter".

At first Mr Hill wondered if the bird was leucistic - a term that means the specimen would have a loss of pigmentation in its feathers, but would not be half-female, half-male.

But after seeing mobile phone pictures, he suspected it had what is called bilateral gynandromorphism, which is when a bird would have both a functioning ovary and a functioning single testis.

Half-female, half-male birds are a very rare phenomenon, explains Professor Brian Peer at Western Illinois University, who has surveyed bilateral gynandromorph northern cardinals in the US.

But, he adds, the phenomenon could go undetected in some species.

Bilateral gyndromorphism is apparently caused by a mistake during cell division," he says.

"An egg and its associated polar body are fertilized by separate sperm. The resulting individual is a male-female chimera."

Professor Peer points out that northern cardinals are very common feeder birds in North America. Because the male and female are so different in appearance, that makes it easier to spot a gynandromorph specimen.

Earlier example of a cardinal with bilateral gynandromorphism from Texas with more distinct colouring.

www.wtxl.com...

Very cool, kind of like the Chimera cat. It has 2 sets of dna, I wonder if the bird does? I imagine so.

They're all coming out of the closet now.

a reply to: dug88That is pretty cool, I wish that I could see one.
I'm a wildlife photographer and I just recently photographed a female Northern Cardinal (in Texas in my backyard) that has more red on it than usual, it's pretty unusual. She was such an ugly baby too, but she grew up to be beautiful.
I'm not comparing them at all, but they are both very unusual.

I am not sure if this is the same bird or not that's in the article, but if so, that bird was spotted and it was in many articles and it was the talk of the town, I saw it a year or two ago on a photography forum I frequent.
I also think that I remember a lady that photographed one in her backyard with her cellphone, that one I can't swear to.
Still, that is a cool thing to see, and I hope that we see more.

originally posted by: carewemust
They're all coming out of the closet now.

LOL, that was funny

a reply to: dug88

Hermaphro-bird?

Cardinal-adite?

Pennsylvania authorities are looking to interview the bird for a position in the Wolf Administration.

Is it known what caused this? Like radioactive nuclides in the environment causing these things?

If that were found to be true, it might explain the current gender problems where some people believe they are a gender not of their birth gender.. Maybe they are both and just don't know all the details.... (Just a joke)

I was wrong, it was a lot longer than I remember, it was back in 2009... heheh

This was a story about it back then.

minnesotabirdnerd.blogspot.com...

originally posted by: NoCorruptionAllowed
Is it known what caused this? Like radioactive nuclides in the environment causing these things?

If that were found to be true, it might explain the current gender problems where some people believe they are a gender not of their birth gender.. Maybe they are both and just don't know all the details.... (Just a joke)

Anomalies are to be expected

Of course, I do wonder how much bird seed comes from untested GMO crops.

Couldn't possibly compete with the hormones to meat ratio we've got in human food though.

Cute bird. Or should I say handsome?
Or am I wrong either way?

a reply to: NoCorruptionAllowed

Three Mile Island was too long ago for this.

I find all kinds of humor in this. Im biting my tongue

a reply to: dug88

I love to bird watch and that would be so incredible to see.
I think they are such cute, smart, fascinating creatures.

I've never understood people that are scared of birds.
I think a lot of people from the 40/50's were scarred by that 60's movie The Birds. lol

Another photographed for the first time is the rare yellow penguin on South Georgia island, Antarctica

It has leucism, meaning its feathers don't contain the melanin needed to produce black pigment.

Link

LOL

This guy will be held up as an agenda mascot, rofl.

a reply to: dug88

Pretty awesome! Thanks for sharing the article.

Of course they mention the yellow cardinal in PSL... Keep hoping it comes back one way. Was right in my neighborhood too.

K. Jenner should be more careful where she throws her outdated meds