This post was contributed by Ethan Gyllenhaal, co-author of a paper in a recent issue of the The Wilson Journal of Ornithology documenting the unusual warbler hybrid described here.

Before I started down the academic path of ornithology, I was a birder with an appetite for difficult bird IDs. I loved the challenge of identifying the gulls that wintered along the shores of Lake Michigan, where I grew up. With so much variation within gull species and such subtle differences between species, each individual was a new puzzle. One complication is that many species of gull regularly mate with each other, producing intermediate hybrids. The strict definition of a species I learned in high school, which said different species never interbred, was clearly an oversimplification. I regularly saw rarer hybrids between distinct species (e.g., Herring x Great Black-backed Gull) and challenging individuals that were the products of hybrids swarms (i.e., Iceland Gulls). My fascination with the complexity of this phenomenon led to my desire to track down hybrids I’d never seen before, as I would any other new life bird.

This post was contributed by Meredith Heather, a Research Assistant in the Avian Ecology lab at Archbold Biological Station and a 2020 WOS Research Grant recipient.

Growing up, I enjoyed watching birds feeding and bathing in the backyard. It wasn’t until after I took an ornithology course that I became more interested in watching their behaviors and learning about individual species. As the years passed, I became increasingly aware of the differences in their habitat preferences, habitat use, movement, and ecological significance. When I decided to pursue a master’s degree, I wanted a research project that would allow me incorporate habitat use, because understanding how animals utilize their habitats is necessary in supporting management and policy decisions. Conducting research at Archbold Biological Station (Archbold) with Florida Scrub-Jays provided me an opportunity to do just that.