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Last week a mystery bird from New Jersey rightly caused a fair bit of confusion among birders of the Garden State and beyond.  The bird was a sparrow, that much was clear, but it didn’t seem to fit any of the easily boxes the other North American sparrows can be fairly easily sorted into.  Superficially, [...]

The more I learn about ducks, the more impressed I am with their blatant promiscuity. Mallards, of course, bring new meaning to the term dabbling duck, what with all those wild mallard hybrids and domestic cross-breeds running around. But apparently, all the Anas-species ducks are overly amorous or at least indiscriminate. Consider the teals. Teal [...]

That is, if you celebrate Easter.  Personally, I don’t believe in all of the religious stuff that goes with it but I sure do like chocolate bunnies and looking for Easter eggs, so, you know, I’ll hang out with the Easter Bunnadee, a distant relation of the Bunny Tanager.  Thanks to Steph for making this [...]

Mallards can be dirty ducks.  Very, very, dirty ducks.  And while ducks in general are known for their hybridizing ways, none are as prolific and undiscriminating as Anas platyrhynchos.  The list of species that Mallards are known to have hybridized with is long and in some cases Mallard genes threaten to flood the gene pool [...]