Nest decoration: birds exploit a fear of feathers to guard their nest from usurpation

• Published in: Royal Society open science Vol. 8; no. 11; p. 211579
• Main Authors: Slagsvold, Tore, Wiebe, Karen L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Royal Society Publishing 01.11.2021; The Royal Society
• Subjects: birds; deception; feathers; hole-nesting; nest usurping; Organismal and Evolutionary Biology; predator avoidance; nest usurping; hole-nesting; deception; birds; predator avoidance; feathers

Many species of birds incorporate feathers into their nest as structural support and to insulate the eggs or offspring. Here, we investigated the novel idea that birds reduce the risk of nest usurpation by decorating it with feathers to trigger a fear response in their rivals. We let prospecting bir...