Did you know that you can often tell whether a bird is male or female by how colourful it is? For many species, males have bright, eye-catching feathers while females are plainer. Sometimes, however, these bright colours are actually a disguise.
Scientists were studying the white-necked jacobin (a type of hummingbird) when they noticed that a lot of females looked just like the males of the species. They didn’t know why, so they decided to investigate.
“One of the ‘aha moments’ of this study was when I realized that all of the juvenile females had showy colours,” said Jay Falk. As they grow older, most of them become plainer, but about one-fifth of adult females keep their bright feathers.
Hummingbirds are very aggressive to each other when feeding, and the researchers noticed that female birds get attacked more often. By disguising themselves as males, the brightly-coloured females are able to eat without being harassed by the birds around them.
Lachlan Writes Science 