“Researchers who venture into gull and tern colonies are subject to dive-bombing attacks from the birds,” Sibley wrote in an email to Audubon.
Kenn Kaufman, field editor at Audubon magazine, agrees that false faces could protect the avian illusionists by encouraging angry birds to keep a slightly greater distance. Ornithologist David Sibley takes it a step further: He's found in his own observations that birds seem less likely to attack if they think they're being watched. Many dive-bombing songbirds seemed confused by the large, looming "eyes," and began attacking the front of the decoys. This shows the fake eyes might protect the raptor from attacks from getting stabbed in the back , according to a 2003 study in the journal The Auk. Mobbing birds will even go so far as to physically attack the raptors, causing distress or injury.įalse faces can redirect these mobbing birds, or so the theory goes. Scientists tested this by setting out dummy owls, some with false eye patches and some without. While rushing the enemy might seem a strange move, scientists think the birds do this to chase the raptor away from nests holding eggs and young, act as an alarm to area birds, and teach chicks and juveniles about the predators. When songbirds sense an owl or falcon in their midst, different species team up to “ mob ” the threat, screeching loudly while dive bombing the predator. The leading theory is that these eyespots serve as self-defense not from predators, but from their own prey. Why do they need this kind of diversion? Many have a penchant for eating songbirds, and songbirds will fight back against an owl or hawk. American Kestrels' black spots mirror their actual eyes, for example, and two symmetrical light spots gaze out from Taita Falcons' dark feathers.įor creatures typically thought of as prey, like moths or small fish, false eyespots can confuse and deter would-be predators. This trickster, a Northern Pygmy-Owl, is part of a group of owls, hawks, and falcons with deceptive eye patches, called ocelli, on the backs of their heads.
What gives? Does this owl really have two pairs of eyes? Alas, no, you were just tricked: The first set of feathered “eyes” were decoys.
Then the bird swivels its head, and bright yellow eyes blink from the other side. The miniature owl, only half a foot tall, squeaks a high-pitched 'toot,' which sounds rather like a child's toy, from a tree. Its dark eyes, fringed with white feathers, stare down at you menacingly.
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