Mobbing is a behavioral pattern adopted by smaller birds to ward off bigger predators. While the attack is a self-defense mechanism meant primarily for safety, the birds also attract the opposite sex by demonstrating their sexual and physical prowess by mobbing.
According to Phys.org, in a study regarding the behavior of birds, it has been found that mobbing includes calls, aerial swoops and sometimes physical attacks. Researchers believe that this type of behavior is done by birds mainly to protect themselves against predators, since most predators' sway away in response to mobbing. In addition to this, researchers also claim that the male birds use mobbing in order to advertise their sexual characteristics to their potential partners.
Experimentations were done by the researchers involving two types of owls, the pygmy owl and the burrowing owl, that were presented to a bird community in south- eastern Brazil, one less threatening than the other species. The researchers then measured the size of the assembled mob, the intensity by which individual members participated in the mock attacks, and whether the things were different if the females from the same species were present. It was found that the mobbing was more intense in the case of less threatening bird model was put out.
According to Springer, there were in total 96 experiments performed with both the models throughout a whole year. It was found that at least one individual species was sexually dimorphic in 54 experiments. In total 19 sexually dimorphic species with 165 individuals were found approaching the predator model.
Overall, it was seen that birds mobbed a low-risk predator model more intensively than a high-risk one. The mobbing intensity, though, did not differ in males and females. No difference in intensity was also found during the breeding and non-breeding seasons as well. The size of the assemblage also did not influence the mobbing characteristics of individual birds.
To conclude, the researchers found that their results suggested that males across 19 species are able to use mobbing qualities to show off their phonetic qualities to females. Female choice can be influenced by the motor skills of the males, which provides clues to their ability to defend a nest successfully.
