u/teaandtoasttt

Hello, I'm an avid Merlin user but still haven't gotten the hang of iNaturalist. I used Merlin to get a recording of a non-avian animal making a sound at night, and want to get it reviewed on iNaturalist, but don't know how. I took a screen recording of part of the merlin sound session, but when I go to iNaturalist and try to hit "choose sound," it only lets me select photos, not videos. I see on the subreddit rules that I can't just post straight up ID asks here without a link to one on the app, but can't even do that 😂 And I'm not sure what other subreddit I could upload the screen recording to for ID help. Please let me know if anyone has some advice, thank you!

Hello, I learned at some point how the Yellow-breasted Chat was once considered a warbler (Parulidae) and was changed out of that and determined to be more closely related to blackbirds (Icteridae). The wikipedia page and even genus name heavily imply it's part of the blackbird family, yet in the Sibley's app, it's not with the rest of them, and when you Google what family it's a part of, it says it has its own single-species family but then lists that family as Icteridae (sometimes spelled Icteriidae). What on earth is going on with the classification of this poor fella?? 😂

Hi all, sorry if this question has been asked before or if it seems like it has a common sense answer, but I'm not a geneticist so... Anyway. I think I know why birds can hybridize relatively "easily" (more readily), because certain close relatives evolved much more recently/quickly on the geological timescale (adaptive radiation and all that), but my question is why some hybrids are so physically/phenotypically consistent? To the point where they have names, like the Lawrence's and Brewster's Warblers? Or for example you look up mallard x northern pintail hybrid (what got me thinking to start) and it's all quite consistent images? I could keep listing examples I've heard of but I'm just wondering how it's so consistent (this may apply to non-birds as well, but that's my main interest). Thanks for any insight!