Female hummingbirds ‘disguise' themselves as males to avoid harassment

In most bird species, the male has bright colourful plumage to attract a mate, while the female looks duller in comparison.

But some female white-necked jacobin hummingbirds, which are found in Panama, don equally flashy iridescent blue plumage as their male counterparts. A new study suggests they have developed this disguise in order to avoid attacks by the opposite sex during feeding, such as pecking and body slamming. Researchers believe it may be the first time this kind of “cross-dressing” defence has been documented in the bird kingdom.