The brown thornbill, one of Australia's tiniest birds, scares off a
predator 40 times its size by imitating the "hawk alarm" to scare off
its much larger enemy, the pied currawong.
PARIS
PARIS
A bird
weighing just two teaspoons of sugar scares off a predator 40 times its
size by imitating the "hawk alarm" of other species, scientists said
Wednesday.
The trick is used by the
brown thornbill, one of Australia's tiniest birds, to scare off its much
larger enemy, the pied currawong, they reported in Proceedings of the
Royal Society B.
The eight-gram
(0.28-ounce) tiddler artfully copies the warning cry used by other bird
species against attack by the goshawk — a predator even bigger and
scarier than the currawong.
This
distracts the currawong, fearing a hawk attack may be imminent, and
gives the thornbill's nestlings enough time to take shelter.
Mimicry
is a common defence in nature, but the researchers were stunned at how
effective this tactic is. They stumbled upon the trick during an
experiment on birds' reaction to a stuffed owl.
"It's very cunning," said Branislav Igic, who conducted the study at the Australian National University.
"It's not superbly accurate mimicry, but it's enough to fool the predator.
"A
physical attack on a currawong would be no good. They are 40 times the
size of a thornbill and will eat adults as well as nestlings."