Australian birds attract mates with 'scary movie effect'

Monday, January 17, 2011 - 21:30 in Biology & Nature

Using a horror film to bring your date closer is a classic move in the teenage playbook. Now, a study of Australian birds finds that other animals use the same "scary movie effect" to attract female attention, by hitchhiking mating signals onto the calls of predators. Male splendid fairy-wrens, a sexually promiscuous small bird native to Australia, are known to sing a special song each time they hear the call of one of their predators, the butcherbirds. New research finds that this seemingly dangerous behavior actually serves as a call to potential mates -- a flirtation using fear.

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