Intriguing, nice investigation Sean. A search on eBird's Macaulay Library also shows nearly all male Northern Shoveler x Cinnamon Teal hybrids with a white crescent and rufous breast area (a more understandable trait) like this bird. https://ebird.org/media/catalog?taxonCode=x00630&q=Cinnamon%20Teal%20x%20Northern%20Shoveler%20(hybrid)%20-%20Spatula%20cyanoptera%20x%20clypeata
I suppose this could mean one of the two parent species (Northern Shoveler or Cinnamon Teal) has a repressed version (unexpressed gene) of a Blue-winged Teal's white crescent somewhere in its genome, while the other parent species contribute's some transcription factor that initiates that gene's expression. Fascinating. David Tonnessen Colorado Springs -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/d2cb805c-23b5-4fbf-9866-41501ef36b03%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
