Australia: Bird flying ladies on red males - Spiegel Online

Red seduces for cheating – at least for Australian Season tails. In birds will generally geturtelt like outside the partnership, scientists report in the “Proceedings of the Royal Society B”. Males with red feathers would like considerably more success than those with orange Balzgefieder, were analyzed genetic material in the offspring.

Red-backed Fairy-Wrens (Malurus melanocephalus) are small passerine birds which feed on insects. They are known for their promiscuous lifestyle. There are two subspecies: the case of a male wearing an orange during the mating season, in the other a deep red feather wreath on the back. The red specimens (M. m cruentatus.) Live in the north, the orange in eastern Australia (M. melanocephalus m.) – With a small overlap zone in the northeast

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Daniel Baldassarre and Michael Webster from Cornell University in Ithaca (USA) now dabbed in the habitat of the orange Wrens 30 km north-west of Brisbane, the back rim of some males over red. To rule out that the sheer chemical substances have an effect, some males were coated with colorless varnish during the mating season for comparison.

Also red males are deceived

The females were from the glorious red of whitewashed males so impressed that they nest their partner cheated on them with much more frequently than with “normal” orange rivals. The males have red painted with alternating Bird Ladies Total fathered more offspring than with their partner, the researchers write. The red plumage is apparently as irresistible sexual attraction to females. However, the “Men in Red” were also often betrayed by their partners as not recolored conspecifics resulted in the genetic analysis of the chicks in the nest.

constant affairs apparently prevented that developed from the two subspecies separate, distinctly different species, the researchers write. Long time had the subspecies probably exists geographically completely separate. Due to the typical wide infidelity, the red courtship plumage now increasingly in the habitat of the subspecies in orange feathered.

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