Scientists say Baltimore and Bullock’s Orioles are not merging.
A half-century of controversy over two popular bird species may have finally come to an end. In one corner: the Bullock's Oriole, found in the western half of North America. In the other corner: the Baltimore Oriole, breeding in the eastern half. Where their ranges meet in the Great Plains, the two mix freely and produce apparently healthy hybrid offspring. But according to scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, hybridization is a dead end and both parent species will remain separate. Findings from the new study were published today in The Auk.
"The debate over whether Bullock’s and Baltimore Orioles are one species or two goes to the very heart of what defines a species," said lead author Jennifer Walsh, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cornell Lab. "For a long time, that definition included the inability of one species to reproduce with any other. Bullock’s and Baltimore Orioles clearly can mate where their ranges overlap in the hybrid zone, but that’s not the whole story."
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