Post by nickinthegarden on May 30, 2019 8:02:50 GMT -8
I was in the Kane Valley south of Merrit BC yesterday and I came across what appears to be a hybrid, Black-capped/Mountain Chickadee. I had not noticed at the time I just assumed it was a Black-capped until I was processing the photo and realized it had a lot of pale gray and little buff brown, but the head of a Black-capped. I did process the photo a little dark but it is still too pale to be considered a straight Black-capped.
Possible Hybrid? by Nick, on Flickr
I did some searching on Google and there does seem to be some hybridizing by Chickadees. An article from 2012 mentioned that with forestry practices changing the normal Mountain Chickadee and Black-capped Chickadee habitat they are coming into contact more and the possibility of interbreeding does occur.
The article was pretty technical and way over my head but it was interesting what I understood of it.
academic.oup.com/beheco/article/23/3/566/223347
Possible Hybrid? by Nick, on FlickrI did some searching on Google and there does seem to be some hybridizing by Chickadees. An article from 2012 mentioned that with forestry practices changing the normal Mountain Chickadee and Black-capped Chickadee habitat they are coming into contact more and the possibility of interbreeding does occur.
The article was pretty technical and way over my head but it was interesting what I understood of it.
academic.oup.com/beheco/article/23/3/566/223347