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How a Bird Came to Look Like a Caterpillar
In nature, one way to avoid being eaten is to look like something you’re not
© David Santiago
The Cinereous Mourner is a small, ashy-gray bird that lives in the forest understory of the Amazon Basin. And it’s taking mimicry to the next level: when viewed from above, lying alone in its cup-shaped nest, its chick is a near match to a highly toxic caterpillar — one that snakes and monkeys won’t eat. The chick even waves its head like a caterpillar, increasing the illusion.
BirdNote®
How a Bird Came to Look Like a Caterpillar
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
[Amazon nature ambient]
In nature, one way to avoid being eaten is to look like something you’re not—ideally, something that tastes really awful — or that might even kill you.
Science calls this (pron: BATES-ee-an) Batesian mimicry, named for a 19th century naturalist. Bates found that some perfectly edible butterflies had evolved color patterns that mimic those of toxic butterflies, which predators avoid.
Well, these butterflies are not alone.
The Cinereous Mourner is a small, ashy-gray bird that lives in the forest understory of the Amazon Basin. And it’s taking mimicry to the next level: its chick looks like a poisonous caterpillar!
[Cinereous Mourner call, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/98606, 0.10-.14]
The chick is covered in vivid orange feathers punctuated with black dots. Lying alone in its cup-shaped nest, it’s a near match to a highly toxic caterpillar — one that snakes and monkeys won’t eat. The chick even waves its head like a caterpillar, increasing the illusion.
Cinereous Mourners live in an area where many birds’ nestlings are routinely lost to predators—and this may explain how a bird wound up dressed as a deadly caterpillar.
[Cinereous Mourner call, https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/98606, 0.10-.14]
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
Support for BirdNote is provided by Sarah Merner and Craig McKibben from Seattle, Washington — and generous listeners around the world.
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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by ML 225024 B. Oshea and ML 98606 D Finch.
BirdNote’s theme music composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler; Managing Producer: Jason Saul; Editor: Ashley Ahearn; Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone; Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill.
© 2019 Tune In to Nature.org March 2019/October 2023
Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# LANHYP-01-2019-3-13 LANHYP-01
REFERENCES
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25560558
About the nestling
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26689-zoologger-the-bird-that-mi…
Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Michael Stein
NarratorSights & Sounds
