The Avian Hybrids Project: gathering the scientific literature on avian hybridization

Hybridization, the interbreeding of different species, plays an important role in several evolutionary processes, such as adaptive trait transfer (Arnold 2006, Arnold et al. 2008, Hedrick 2013), adaptive radiations (Seehausen 2004), and the origin of new species (Mavarez & Linares 2008, Abbott et al. 2013, Schumer et al. 2014). However, hybridization can have detrimental effects for the species involved: one of the species can be driven to extinction (Rhymer & Simberloff 1996) or two species can merge into one leading to a loss in biodiversity (Seehausen 2006, Seehausen et al. 2008), so hybridization has also become a relevant topic in conservation (Allendorf et al. 2001, Brumfield 2010).