Olsen’s sparrow research focus of Granite Geek article

Granite Geek published an article on a study conducted by a group of researchers including Brian Olsen, assistant professor of biology and ecology at the University of Maine. Some closely related bird species interbreed where their ranges overlap, producing hybrid offspring that can backcross with either parent species until a whole population of mixed-species birds forms in the area and creates what’s known as a “hybrid zone,” according to the article. In the coastal marshes of New England, this has been happening between the saltmarsh sparrow and Nelson’s sparrow, the article states. Olsen worked with researchers at the University of New Hampshire, the University of Delaware and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to capture and examine birds in hybrid zones on the coast of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The researchers found appearance alone is not enough to identify hybrid zone birds, and birds from further backcrossed generations were often indistinguishable from the parent species, the article states. Fifty percent of birds identified as pure Nelson’s or saltmarsh sparrows in the field turned out be the descendants of hybrids when their DNA was analyzed. Tech Times and Nature World News also reported on the research.