Is this a new species of bird?

Separate species in general, cannot successfully breed. A cat and a dog cannot have offspring with each other. A crow and an owl cannot have offspring together. A human and an ape cannot have offspring together.

Look at the poor mule. It is the result of the breeding of a Male Horse and a Female Donkey. They are still close enough that they can breed, and thus a Mule is born, but the poor mule is always sterile and cannot itself breed.

The reasons for the dificulty in interspecies breeding lies at the DNA level. You have to have the right match or it just wont work without genetic manipulation. Some species can interbreed due to their close relation, but not every similar species has this ability.

Here is a short list of some interspecies pairs that can sucessfully breed.

• liger = male lion + female tiger
• tigon or tiglon = male tiger + female lion
 
• mule = male donkey + female horse
• hinny = male horse + female donkey (jenny)
 
• zorse = zebra + horse (This only works with a male Zebra and a female Horse and not the other way around)
• zonkey or zebrass = zebra + donkey (ass)
• cama = camel + llama
• catalo or beefalo = buffalo + cattle
• yakalo = yak + buffalo
• wholphin = whale + dolphin (specifically a false killer whale and a bottlenose dolphin)
 
• Toast of Botswana = goat + sheep
Obviously this deserves some clarification. While a sheep can be impregnated by a goat, the kid/lamb is always stillborn... except in one case in the early 1990s. This animal was nicknamed the Toast of Botswana. Since it was the only one ever known to have lived, no other name has been given to a goat/sheep combination.
 
• humanzee - there have been numerous reports of human/chimpanzee combinations, but none of these have been confirmed
• several species of cats can be bred including: lion/leopard, lion/jaguar, puma/leopard, bobcat/lynx, caracal/serval
• several species of canines including domestic dog/wolf, coyote/wolf, domestic dog/coyote
• several species of monkeys and apes can interbreed
• several species of deer and antelope can be interbred
• several species of snakes can be crossbred
• wild and domestic pigs can crossbreed
• African elephant and Asian elephants are known to have bred once in the past

Source for this and more information on the subject:interspecies breeding

[edit on 25-4-2007 by Terapin]

Don't forget about raptor hybrids.

Hybrid falcons are the only legal ones allowed in the U.S.

Been stuck on this one for awhile, all I can think of is a hybrid form of booby. Here's a brown booby:



Or the masked shrike -- who grows up without the 'leather face' look:



Doing some research on the face -- it looks like a booby but they're pretty rare to the open waters and islands. But the faces have that look, sort of. Maybe it's a hybrid. Have you seen the bird lately? All boobies seem to have the webbed feet which is why this looks like a starling/booby hybrid.

It's the size of a starling, full grown in your photos which is why I think this, otherwise, maybe the face is the result of a finch/starling hybrid. Or as some of the other posters mentioned, a horked owl/starling or other blackbird hybrid, which sounds more likely.

In the birders world -- any hybrids are pretty rare and only happen within the same family type(s). This is a weird one.

I just discovered your picture, and I agree it is a really interesting bird. It doesn't resemble anything I've seen in Eastern Oklahoma, but I do not believe it is an owl. Owls have curved beaks, and this bird's beak is straight and pointed.

All Boobys have webbed feet because they spend most of their time above the Ocean. While acrobats in the air and great at sea landings, they are horrible at landing on hard surfaces which is why they earned the name Booby, from the Spanish 'Bobo,' or stupid. They are also very large birds with a 56" wingspan. Much much larger than a sparrow. Even the chick of a Booby is larger than a Sparrow.