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/).