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Asian mystery These birds are giving us valuable lessons about how the rapid evolution can occur

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bulbuls Red
Pycnonotus jocosus

, photographed in Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.

Image

:. Marie-Louise Ng, 17 December 2011 (with permission) [velociraptorize] Nikon D7000 encourage you to purchase images from photographers who freely share their wonderful work with us.

Question: this cute pair of birds in the mystery of Asia are common and easily identified, but this picture is so cute that I 'I had to share with you anyway. That said, there is something very remarkable about these birds: they give us a real life lesson in how quickly evolution can happen - can you tell me a bit about that? Can identify the family of these birds and taxonomic species?

answer:

is a pair of red whiskers bulbuls

Pycnonotus

jocosus

, a passerine bird found in tropical Asia. Are placed in nightingales and Greenbul Pycnonotidae. These birds of other species no distinctive appearance, and cagebirds popular in South Asia because of their trusting nature. They are fairly easy to maintain, despite being frugivorous, they do well in a variety of foods. Their ability to adapt also an invasive species: after the introduction of a leak or develop in a series of subtropical areas where there are indigenous, including Australia and the United States and southeast of the archipelago of Fiji and Hawaii. In addition, these birds are resistant to human pressure on the environment and to tolerate the disruption of its habitat.

mustaches red robins are a "life experience" to teach us a little about the speed with which changes can occur. For example, they were accidentally introduced in Reunion Island and are currently growing in two contrasting climatic and ecological habitats on the sides and downwind in the lee of the island. A fascinating field study was published in 2007 that the morphological divergence is very fast, especially in the beak size took place in less than ten generations (doi: 10.1111/j.1474-919X.2007.00671.x). All these visible changes in morphology are likely due to differences in diet from one side of the island to another.

cited work:

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