Not all the hybrids around here are Priuses
Wednesday May 11th 2011, 10:41 pm
Filed under: Knitting a Gift,Wildlife

Wait, what on earth was…? (Consulted Sibley, Google.) I tried several times to get its picture and failed.

Remember my male junco/female house finch couple last year? Turns out they do occasionally mate and rear hybrid offspring.

There’s nothing else it could have been. Curious.  Given that it was molting a bit but only on one side, I’m assuming it’s a yearling from that coupling last year.

I saw it come in three times today. It was small, like its father; it stayed on the ground and never flew up to the feeder, again like the junco.  It was bolder than either parent’s species, perfectly willing to scoot under the wooden box for the bit of food I put under there for the wrens in the mornings so that they don’t get bullied away by the bigger birds, a place where normally only the wrens go . There was room for it to stand upright, too, just barely, and the towhees and finches never do more than a nervous reach and grab with their beaks while standing as far outside as they can manage.

But this one, having been different from the others on the patio from its first moment, didn’t mind doing the job properly of taking care of life, even if it meant thinking underside the box. The best food is worth the effort!  It danced out a moment later with its prize, then hopped back in fearlessly for more. Cool.

What would you name such a bird?

Meantime, the Malabrigo Rios watchcap in a dark Solis colorway is done; it took 46 g of the 100g skein. On to the next project!


7 Comments so far
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Very pretty

Comment by Sherry in Idaho 05.12.11 @ 7:14 am

Thinking underside the box. I like that.

Comment by Don Meyer 05.12.11 @ 7:58 am

Finco? Junch? Amazing!! and what of the offspring — can it mate too, or is it like the horse/zebra cross? and what would you call the offspring of that pairing? Genetics is the one branch of science that fascinates me!!

Comment by Bev 05.12.11 @ 9:33 am

Milagro. And I KNEW those crazy kids were going to make it! Or him. Or her . . .

Comment by Patricia Day 05.12.11 @ 10:20 am

Funco – how fun they got together! Hybrids always have more vigor, it seems. I wonder if its sibs are quite different in personality, like human sibs often are.

Comment by twinsetellen 05.12.11 @ 7:46 pm

Oh man, my LYS currently has Malabrigo Sock in Solis, and it is taking ALL MY WILLPOWER not to buy any. SO PRETTY.

Comment by Lanafactrix 05.12.11 @ 9:01 pm

I think a Jincho

Comment by Diana Troldahl 05.13.11 @ 12:23 pm



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