Mirrors

[(Richard Johnson)]

G'day All

To the list of reflection-attackers, I can add: male Red-backed Fairy-wren,
fighting its relection in a car mirror; and male Mistletoebird, doing same with
a motorbike mirror.
I've always assumed such behaviour to be territory defence. What I find most
remarkable is just how alert and sensitive to other males these birds must be -
consider how 'lucky' a bird would have to be to catch a glimpse of itself in the
small mirror; the red of a RBFW or Mistletoebird (or at least the contrast of
red and black) must be extremely 'apparent' to the birds concerned.

Richard

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Richard Johnson
Roma District
Tel: (07) 4622 4266  Fax: (07) 46 22 4151
E-mail: 



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