In this beautiful spring, let me introduce you to a gorgeous bird. How gorgeous is it? Its name is the Gorgeous Fairy-wren.
Don’t you know how to pronounce the word "wren"? Don’t you even recognize the words before and after it? This tells you that Wen Nianliáo.
Magnificent Fairy-wren ( Magnificent Fairy-wren )
As Chinese people, we may not be familiar with the Magnificent Fairy-wren, but in Australia, it is considered a household name and one of the most popular birds. .
Gorgeous thin-tailed Wren is petite in stature, only less than 12 centimeters in size, and looks like a small ball from certain angles. Although this bird is not big, it has many flaws.
The female does not change clothes for a year
One of the most conspicuous features of the gorgeous Fairy Wren is that the male bird sometimes has bright and dazzling blue feathers. These blue feathers are the courtship costumes that young male birds put on during the spring and summer breeding seasons. As the breeding season passes, the blue feathers will gradually fade.
And
the female Fairy Wren will not change its "clothes" and has duller brown feathers all year round.
Recognize the male and female at a glance
Picture from: wiki
Some ornithologists believe that this is a "gentleman's behavior" evolved in nature. The brighter the feather color, the easier it is to attract natural enemies, which means that the male's thin tail during the breeding season Wrens, increase their own risk to protect females and chicks.
A young male Fairy Wren moulting (left)
Studies have found that when male birds are around, female birds will spend more time looking for food with peace of mind, instead of being vigilant and hiding.
If male Fairy Wrens can survive for more than five years in the cruel wild, then they will be able to keep their blue feathers forever and never fade away. This is a proud testament to the strong survivors!
Giving flowers is so romantic, but Neptune Real Hammer
The male Fairy Wren also has a particularly romantic behavior, which is to give flowers to females.
Yes, Xiaoniao is actually more proactive (bushi) than many of our male compatriots, and will generously send flowers to the opposite sex he likes!
Under normal circumstances, the male bird will carefully select a small yellow petal and hold it on the tip of his mouth. Sometimes he will fly and dance up and down like a seahorse, solemnly presenting the flower to the female bird.
is excellent.
Preparing to present flowers
Picture from: twitter.com
The reason why it chooses small yellow petals is because yellow and blue are complementary colors in nature, so the yellow flowers will make the blue feathers of the male bird bluer.
To put it simply, it can make you look more handsome.
Although the courtship ceremony is extremely careful, the male bird does not follow the path of loyalty - he is not only attentive to one female bird, but will send petals to many females. Observations found that male birds often even sneak into the neighbor's territory next door to send flowers to female birds. Neptune is real!
In addition to sending flowers, male birds sometimes give female birds some food to express their love.
In addition to flowers and food, male Fairy Wrens also use their songs to impress the opposite sex. But what's special is that the male Fairy Wren will deliberately choose some dangerous moments to show off his voice and sing love songs.
Whenever a raptor passes by in the sky, other birds hold their breath and remain silent, but the male Fairy Wren in blue breeding plumage often sings bravely. Although dangerous, it easily attracts the attention of females.
Maybe it’s because it’s too adventurous. Fairy-tailed wrens don’t live long in the wild (NO zuo NO die, it’s weird if they can live longer)...
Pictures from: Wiki
It’s all the natural environment’s fault for being so fancy
Gorgeous and delicate The reason why wrens are so "romantic and affectionate" is because of their special "marriage model."
On the surface, Fairy Wrens, like 90% of most bird species, are socially monogamous birds. But in fact, they will not miss any opportunity to mate with the opposite sex (sexually promiscuous).
Picture from: animalia.bio
In the nature documentary "Birds of Birds", the famous naturalist Attenborough even believed that the gorgeous fairy wren is the most disloyal of all birds.
Because both male and female birds will have relationships beyond friendship with multiple members of the opposite sex; on average, only 20% of the baby birds hatched are related to the nominal father, and most of the rest are related to each other. Neighboring territory other male bird .
Female bird: I am not a playboy, my heart is just broken into many pieces
Pictures from: wiki
Your circle is so chaotic! But the Fairy Wren's evolution into this ridiculous situation is related to Australia's cruel and changeable natural environment.
Due to the instability of food and precipitation, the habitats that Fairy Wrens can live and breed in for a long time are relatively limited, so if they find a suitable territory for survival, they will be passed on from generation to generation. The Fairy Wrens in the territory are mostly related to each other. On the one hand, they have to work together to stabilize family relationships and cooperate in raising offspring, and on the other hand, they have to prevent inbreeding, which is why they finally developed into the current "chaotic" state.
Swipe left and right to see more
The author encountered a pure white Fairy Wren in the wild a while ago! There was something wrong with the pigment in this little bird's body and it became leucistic.
is amazing! It can also "prenatal education"
The last thing I want to introduce is a super skill possessed by the Gorgeous Fairy Wren - "prenatal education".
The mother of the Fairy Wren will begin to sing the "hatching song" to the eggs ten days after laying eggs. Every mother's "hatching song" is unique and different from others. And the mother bird will teach the "hatching song" to the father bird and other "nanny" helpers in the family.
The hatching eggs of the Gorgeous Fairy Wren
Picture from: nature.com
The "hatching song" composed of 11 notes will be sung until the young birds hatch. One note has a very special length and pitch that only the Fairy Wren can produce.
After the baby Fairy Wren is born, its cry for food from its parents will contain notes from the "hatching song." This song is like a password. Only if the baby sings correctly, the parents and "nanny" will feed them food. If the song is wrong, the Fairy Wren couple will abandon the nest and build a new nest to lay eggs and incubate them.
This magical approach perfectly prevents cuckoos, nest-parasitic birds, from replacing their eggs into the nests of gorgeous fairywrens.
Only when you sing the "password" correctly will you have food to eat
Picture from: nature.com
At the same time, scientists also discovered that not only the mother bird can sing to the eggs, but the father can also sing. And unborn babies seem to prefer hearing their dads sing - certain measurable neural activities in the chicks' brains are more active when their dads sing.
The more time and frequency the father of the Fairy Wren sings, the more obedient and well-behaved the baby bird will be after birth, and will obey commands more promptly when in danger.
Think about it carefully, this bird may not have become a spirit!
A neat family of birds
Pictures from: animalio.bio
The magical land of Tu'ao
Abandon children when in danger? Quokka was killed
What a glutinous rice ball, but it grew up to become an emoticon
One second it was basking in the sun, and the next second it beat you up
Writing and photography | Tu'ao Ecology Jun
WeChat editor | happy
