#corythaixoides

[hello-birdies]

Corythaixoides leucogaster by Lip Kee

[kadzhi]

grey go-away-bird (Corythaixoides concolor), also known as grey lourie, grey loerie, or kwêvoël

feat. Yellow Billed Hornbill

Image sources: (x) (x) (x) (more information on Corythaixoides concolor here)

[libutron]

The White-bellied Go-away-birds and their alarm calls

Corythaixoides leucogaster (Cuculiformes - Musophagidae) is an African bird that has the peculiar common name of White-bellied Go-away-bird, because of their sentinel calls that (they say) sound like "Go Away" (listen here).

White-bellied Go-away-birds are also distinctive by the crest on the top of their head, along with its facial pattern. But the really interesting thing about this bird is that the Gunther’s dik-diks (Madoqua guentheri) responds to go-away bird alarm calls with anti predator behavior.

Recent studies suggest that alarm calls elicit responses not only from predators and conspecifics (organisms that belong to the same species) but also from other species (in this case, eavesdropping or cooperating heterospecifics).

When dik-diks hear the go-away bird alarm calls, they respond increasing alertness and adopting a protective behavior that include the immediate running, decreasing the time they spend foraging, increasing the looking rate, and increasing the time they spend stand looking.

Dik-diks neither produce complex alarm calls nor do they live socially, yet their extreme vulnerability to predators creates a strong selective force that may drive the evolution of associative learning abilities. This process is named associative learning evolution.

References: [1] - [2]

Photo credit: ©Amano Samarpan | Locality: Southern Ethiopia

[1emniskatie]

Birds. Tumblr. Tumblr birds.

If Tumblr users were birds, they'd all be Corythaixoides.