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My favourite blue tit fact is that they are sexually dichromatic under UV light only. The male crown is brighter in UV and females prefer males with brighter c
by rwmj 2mo ago
My favourite blue tit fact is that they are sexually dichromatic under UV light only. The male crown is brighter in UV and females prefer males with brighter crowns. Mere humans can't tell the difference.
Comes from this rather brilliantly titled paper: Blue tits are ultraviolet tits https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1688906/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1688906/
- mc32 2mo agoThey UV will sharpen them up and get them ready for a bit of the old Ultraviolets.
- rglover 2mo ago> Comes from this rather brilliantly titled paper: Blue tits are ultraviolet tits https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1688906/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1688906/ Made my day. Love it when you can tell they could have titled it something else but decided the joke was technically accurate and worth it.
- stavros 2mo agoNothing like "sexing baby chicks": https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032579119558473 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003257911...
- rao-v 2mo agoRead this as "Male humans can't tell the difference." and found it comic
- catoc 2mo agoBriljant! And there’s more fun to be had in the scientific community: Will Great Tits become Little Tits? https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.1979.tb00040.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.1979.tb00040.x Size matters: competition between male and female great tit offspring https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29314002/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29314002/ And even outside ornithology: The mammogram that cried Wolfe https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe068244 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe068244 To pee or not to pee https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17895334/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17895334/