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Rare 'half-male, half-female' cardinal photographed in Pennsylvania

bbc.com

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Re: Rare 'half-male, half-female' cardinal photographed in Pennsylvania

#61

Post by acomjean »

aeturnum wrote: post #23

I think it's lovely how accessible high quality photographic equipment has become. Naturalism is much easier when it's not just the "professionals" who have access to high-quality telephoto equipment. These clear, detailed photographs were taken in a rush! Technology is so good that even entry level cameras have sensors that put professional camera sensors from fifteen years ago to shame. It's easy to feel like we ar…

It’s much easier than in the film days. Great equipment can still give great results. I met this guy on a walk on the north shore of Massachusetts. with a 600mm lens. Much better reach than mine.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bryanbatley/

As opposed to my setting up a GoPro on my moms feeder. Which is fun but not quite the same (she has a normal male cardinal)

https://youtu.be/BXMRen6lKEw

Re: Rare 'half-male, half-female' cardinal photographed in Pennsylvania

#63

Post by elmomle »

rossdavidh wrote: post #18

"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." So, uh, it would have been interesting if they h…

I suspect it had to do with sex-associated traits were split down the middle. I'm only an amateur, but I can see that the right side has a male's long tail feathers while the left side does not. I imagine there are other details that would be apparent to an expert.

Re: Rare 'half-male, half-female' cardinal photographed in Pennsylvania

#64

Post by pottertheotter »

Fellshard wrote: post #57
NDizzle wrote: post #53

There were two giant northern cardinals "playing" (who knows) in my front yard yesterday morning. This was right after the snow started melting, so their bright red coloring really stood out. Maybe it's me getting old, but it's nice to see things like that every now and then.

Having grown up in an area without cardinals, I'm delighted to now live somewhere that has a few of them about in winter. There's a mated pair that keep pretty close together around our house, and they're a delight to watch together.

I grew up in Silicon Valley and had never seen a cardinal in the wild until a couple years ago. Currently in the Midwest and see them in my yard and I love them. My home office has a bay window and there is a bush that backs up to part of it, so I can look into the bush. The cardinals love to go in it and I can watch them from my desk. It really is a delight.

I also love goldfinches. I had a bird feeder that only they can eat from and had so much fun watching them. Plus it made it so I can instantly recognize their calls.

And the tufted titmouse is the cutest regular I see.

Re: Rare 'half-male, half-female' cardinal photographed in Pennsylvania

#66

Post by CryptoPunk »

NDizzle wrote: post #53

There were two giant northern cardinals "playing" (who knows) in my front yard yesterday morning. This was right after the snow started melting, so their bright red coloring really stood out. Maybe it's me getting old, but it's nice to see things like that every now and then.

We truly are blessed to live in a world with such wonders.

Re: Rare 'half-male, half-female' cardinal photographed in Pennsylvania

#67

Post by Larrikin »

jijji wrote: post #60
kludgeon wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. be wary of all citations to a _meta_ analysis; 2. be wary of dated results that are being republished without further research; 3. be very wary of publishers with an agenda beyond the fourth estate. 1. check 2. 13-page report published in 2017 without follow up turned into a book released yesterday 3. axios "Between the Lines" ( https://www.axios.com/about/ ) just because i like and/or agree with axios does not le…

The body of evidence about the effects of endocrine disruptors/gender bending chemicals on the destruction of species is many decades in the making. Axios is just one of many to publish such stories: [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2726844/ [2] https://www.epa.gov/chemical-research/research-endocrine-dis... [3] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41574-019-0273-8 [4] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l…

I'm way more wary of people who post a lot, have been on the site for nearly a decade, and get everything they post voted down and flagged on a consistent basis.

Re: Rare 'half-male, half-female' cardinal photographed in Pennsylvania

#68

Post by kludgeon »

Larrikin wrote: post #67
jijji wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The body of evidence about the effects of endocrine disruptors/gender bending chemicals on the destruction of species is many decades in the making. Axios is just one of many to publish such stories: [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2726844/ [2] https://www.epa.gov/chemical-research/research-endocrine-dis... [3] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41574-019-0273-8 [4] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l…

I'm way more wary of people who post a lot, have been on the site for nearly a decade, and get everything they post voted down and flagged on a consistent basis.

touche, i bit.

Re: Rare 'half-male, half-female' cardinal photographed in Pennsylvania

#69

Post by souprock »

rossdavidh wrote: post #18

"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." So, uh, it would have been interesting if they h…

Yep. Unless you check the gonads and the DNA on both sides, any explanation will be uncertain.

I note that birds use the WZ sex system, which is like the opposite of the mammalian XY sex system. Males are ZZ. Selective silencing of genes on the Z chromosome for dosage compensation could cause spacial variation across the body. We see something like this in the XY sex system with Barr bodies, leading to coloration differences such as those of the calico cat.

It's also possible to have a plain old male-male chimera, or a plain old mutation, with the cells in one part failing to produce the proper color.

Re: Rare 'half-male, half-female' cardinal photographed in Pennsylvania

#70

Post by Blikkentrekker »

elil17 wrote: post #43
Blikkentrekker wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the need for “he/they”; I do not understand the need for “he/him” opposed to simply “he”. If I see “he”, I and everyone else I would gather, would certainly assume that the object pronoun congruates.

I think the original reason was for neopronouns, or pronouns that were recently invented. At some point there was quite a push to have a dedicated gender neutral singular (I believe it was ze/zir/zir/zirs/zirself) and so people who were using those pronouns listed them all out so people would know all the different forms.

And in that case, it would make sense, since one can't be assumed to know all the cases.

But with “he” one can be assumed to know it, and I find it looking rather weird to state it.

It's as though one put “Argentinian/Argentinians” in one's profile. — yes, I happen to know what the plural of “Argentinian” is.

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