Subject: [Tweeters] Hybridization question
Date: Apr 13 11:15:09 2005
From: pslott - VariedThrush at comcast.net


Hybridization question

Tweeters,

Yesterday, I saw my first Greater White-fronted X Canada Goose hybrid at
Nisqually. It surprised me because these species don?t seem terribly
similar to me and I spent some time trying to make it into a Greater
White-fronted X Bean Goose, Anser, before I had to accept the similarity
to the Canadas, Branta, that were with it. Hybrids I can think of at the
moment seem to be from the same genus, so I was more surprised when I
realized that D. Sibley gives them a separate genus (and another
separate genus for Snow Goose, Chen, that, apparently, also hybridizes
with GWFG). So I thought I?d see what C. Sibley and Monroe had to say
about the genus of these birds. Their world list put Snow Goose into
Anser with GWFG, but left Canada in Branta.

So, my question is, How common is hybridization across genera?

Patricia Lott