Extremely rare half female, half male bird spotted in the wild

Hamish Spencer, a professor at the University of Otago and a zoologist, came across the bird during his holiday.

Nature never ceases to surprise humans and this extremely rare bird captured on camera is one such example. What makes this creature unusual? As per reports, it is a ‘wild Green Honeycreeper with distinct half green, or female, and half blue, male, plumage’.

The image shows a half male, half female extremely rare bird. (The University of Otago)

The University of Otago shared about this unusual bird in a blog post. They added how the university’s professor and zoologist, Hamish Spencer, came across the creature during his holiday when an amateur ornithologist, John Murillo, spotted it in the wild.

“Many birdwatchers could go their whole lives and not see a bilateral gynandromorph in any species of bird. The phenomenon is extremely rare in birds, I know of no examples from New Zealand ever. It is very striking, I was very privileged to see it,” said Professor Spencer.

What are gynandromorphs?

Professor Spencer explained that they are “animals with both male and female characteristics in a species that usually have separate sexes.” This phenomenon is usually observed in insects, spiders, butterflies, and even lizards or rodents.

“The phenomenon arises from an error during female cell division to produce an egg, followed by double-fertilization by two sperm,” he added.