Red-whiskered bulbuls, Pycnonotus jocosus, photographed at Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
Question: This cute pair of Asian mystery birds are common and easy-to-identify, but this image is so adorable that I had to share it with you anyway. That said, there is something quite remarkable about these birds: they are giving us a real-life lesson in how quickly evolution can happen -- can you tell me a little about that? Can you identify these birds' taxonomic family and species?
Response: This is a pair of red-whiskered bulbuls, Pycnonotus jocosus, a passerine found in the tropics of Asia. They are placed with the bulbuls and greenbuls into Pycnonotidae. These distinctive little birds look like no other species, and are popular cagebirds in southeast Asia because of their confiding nature. They are fairly easy to keep; although being frugivores, they do well on a variety of foods. Their adaptability has also made them an invasive species: after escape or introduction, they thrive in a number of subtropical places where they're not native, including Australia and the southeastern United States and the island archipelagos of Fiji and Hawaii. Further, these birds are resistant to human pressures on their environment and tolerate disturbances to their habitats.
Red-whiskered bulbuls are a "living experiment" that are teaching us a little about the speed at which evolution can occur. For example, they were accidentally introduced to the island of Réunion and now are thriving in two climatically and ecologically contrasting habitats located on the windward and leeward sides of the island. A fascinating field study was published in 2007 that found very rapid morphological divergence, particularly in these birds' bill size, had occurred in fewer than ten generations (doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.2007.00671.x). All these visible changes in morphology are likely due to dietary differences from one side of the island to the other.
Christophe Amiot, Olivier Lorvelec, Isabelle Mandon-Dalger, Antonia Sardella, Patricia Lequilliec & Philippe Clergeau (2007). Rapid morphological divergence of introduced Red-whiskered Bulbuls Pycnonotus jocosus in contrasting environments. Ibis, 149 (3), 482–489. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.2007.00671.x.
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