Hybridization dynamics of Blue-winged and Golden-winged warblers. Genome sequencing

Golden-winged and blue-winged warblers are closely related birds that hybridize frequently where their ranges overlap on their breeding grounds in eastern North America and hybridization is viewed as one of the leading causes of the precipitous decline of golden-winged warblers in recent decades. We used whole genome sequencing to determine the extent to which the genomes of the two species differ, to determine the genes that underlie plumage differences between the species, and to evaluate the frequency of hybridization thought their evolutionary history.