Scientists have confirmed the species of hybrid bird for the first time found in the Amazon rainforests. The scientists named it Golden Crown Manakin. According to scientists, this bird was first seen in Brazil in the year 1957. After that nobody saw it till 2002. Now on the basis of many genetic tests, scientists have come to the conclusion that this bird is of hybrid species.
A hybrid species forms when two parental species mate to produce a hybrid population, which then stops being able to interbreed with the parental species. In this case the two parents are the snow-capped manakin, named for its bright snowy-white crown feathers, and the opal-crowned manakin, named for its brilliant iridescent crown feathers.
The resulting population can also interbreed with either parent species and become more genetically similar to one or the other. In this case, the golden-crowned is 80 percent opal-crowned and 20 percent snow-capped, according to the DNA comparisons detailed in the new study.
Hybridization is a fairly well-documented phenomenon, but when the resulting animal truly distinguishes itself from its parents the hybrid is harder to pin down. As a group of hybrids start to form their own species, they start breeding primarily among themselves and isolate their genes from their parent species.