Scientists Discover First Known Hybrid Bird Species In The Amazon Rainforest

Hybrid species among vertebrates are exceedingly rare. Scientists have discovered the first known hybrid bird species to be found in the Amazon rainforest - a golden-crowned manakin (Lepidothrix vilasboasi) with yellow feathers.

The golden-crowned manakin lives in an area of the south-central Amazon Rainforest that is about 200 square kilometres and is largely separated from areas where snow- capped and opal-crowned live by wide rivers that the birds are reluctant to cross. It likely owes its survival as a species on being geographically isolated from its parental species at some point during a past ice age when rainforest coverage contracted, and wide rivers formed natural barriers.