Bilateral Gynandromorphy

[ysabetwordsmith]

... here seen in a green honeycreeper.

I was previously familiar with the phenomenon from photos of cardinals, where the sex division is similarly dramatic. It's also possible to have a vertically divided half-albino (or leucistic, with dark eyes) bird.

There's a trend in mythology and modern fiction where human hermaphrodites (whether biological intersex or philosophical genderqueer) present as male on one side, female on the other. This presentation is often attacked as "unrealistic" or somesuch, but that kind of division really does appear in nature for some species. Imagine being genderqueer and having no idea what to do about it, then you see a gynandromorphic bird, and you know enough about birds to recognize what you're seeing. There's a pretty good chance that you'd go, "Oh hey, that could work for me!" I suspect that happened at least once in history, and the idea stuck around.

Birdfeeding

[ysabetwordsmith]

Today is sunny and mild, a beautiful winter day.

I fed the birds. I've seen a flock of sparrows at the hopper feeder.

I cut brush at the south end of the daffodil bed.

EDIT 12/15/23 -- I cut more brush at the south end of the daffodil bed.