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So, we all know that hybrids are infertile, that's the definition of a species, but how come some parrot species can interbreed and still be fertile. For instance a military macaw and a blue and gold macaw can have offspring that are fertile and can breed to make further hybrid macaws. These two species are definitely different species and not sub-species. How is this possible?

Rowan Blackwell-Cronie
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  • Minor comment - not all hybrids are infertile. 'Hybridisation' can occur between two e.g. breeds of the same species and can therefore produce fertile offspring. – user438383 Dec 14 '20 at 12:42
  • Yes I know that sub-species can interbreed to create fertile offspring because they are in fact the same species. However, military macaws and blue and gold macaws are separate species and therefore should not have fertile offspring. Although thank you for clarifying in case it wasn't clear in my original post – Rowan Blackwell-Cronie Dec 14 '20 at 14:38
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    "hybrids are infertile, that's the definition of a species" is not accurate - it may be a definition but certainly not the definition (and completely fails for asexually reproducers). Remi's answer at https://biology.stackexchange.com/a/39669/27148 is a good related read. – Bryan Krause Dec 14 '20 at 16:10
  • Yes but that still doesn't really answer my question. Macaws reproduce sexually and therefore still come under that definition of a species. I'm not trying to argue I've done so much digging to find an answer to this and just can't. – Rowan Blackwell-Cronie Dec 15 '20 at 17:10
  • @RowanBlackwell-Cronie Did you read the answer I linked? – Bryan Krause Dec 15 '20 at 17:49
  • @Bryan Krause yes I did, and whole I found it interesting, I understood it as stating that whilst similar species might never normally interbreed, e.g a bird with blue feather and a bird with red feathers, but if they did they could create viable offspring. However I interperated this as meaning that those birds were actually of the same species in order to do this? But there have been cases of very different bird species creating fertile offspring. Which is what I can't understand. Please correct me if I'm wrong here – Rowan Blackwell-Cronie Dec 15 '20 at 22:41
  • @RowanBlackwell-Cronie No, the birds in the situation Remi describes would still typically be described as different species based on their reproductive isolation, even if hybrids are actually fertile. That's the whole point of the post: the weakness of definitions of "species". – Bryan Krause Dec 15 '20 at 22:45
  • Ohhh right. Thanks for clarifying. I'll do more research into this – Rowan Blackwell-Cronie Dec 16 '20 at 23:21

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