Okay, but griffins, and ligers, and birds, oh my!

E41. Centaurs, mermaids, minotaurs: we have been inventing creatures that are two things at once for as long as we have told stories. Birds do it for real. Dr. Glaucia Del-Rio of the Florida Museum of Natural History studies two Amazonian antbirds that meet where a river runs out, and what their offspring say about where one species ends.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• Why a river can be an impossible barrier for a bird with perfectly good wings, and what researchers found when they carried birds out into the middle of one and let go
• How to spot a hybrid antbird at a glance, once you know which colors belong to which parent
• The German-Brazilian ornithologist an all-women expedition was named for, and the injury she dealt with herself, a long way from any hospital

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Red-capped Manakin audio contributed by David L. Ross Jr., ML57360
• Streak-headed Woodcreeper audio contributed by Ted Parker, ML21543
• American Flamingo audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML172484
• Lawrence's Warbler (hybrid) audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML113786
• Brewster's Warbler (hybrid) audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML76906

Additional photos and video courtesy of Glaucia Del-Rio: Marco Rego, Fabio Schunck, Luis Morais, and Angela Prochilo. Harlequin Antbird photo by Hector Bottai, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).