Female Hummingbirds Masquerade as Males to Avoid Harassment

[DuesToTheDirt]

Interesting....

Humans, clownfish, hummingbirds.

All basically the same animal, just with some cosmetic differences.

The article makes it all sound so exciting! who knew that 'Hummingbirds live on the margins energetically.' and 'aren't afraid to pick a fight'?
I think I'm going to start identifying as female white-necked jacobin sporting flashy male-like plumage😀

It's strange though, or perhaps my brain isn't functioning well tonight! It says

"Males claim territories to have a monopoly on breeding, and typically show less aggression toward trespassing females."

which seems to contradict with

"Compared with drab females, vibrant females with male coloration faced less social harassment from both male and female birds."

And then we have

"The data suggests that these more aggressive females with the male-like plumage are better at defending a key food resource,"

so they don't just look different from brown-feathered females, they act differently as well.

Ugh, how transhummingbirdphobic you're all being. No-one has asked these hummingbirds their gender identity OR their pronouns.

Anyway, the reason I found this article interesting wasn't so much that the female hummingbirds were using male plumage, but the suggestion that they were doing it to avoid harassment. It brings to mind the theory that some female teenagers identify as boys to avoid sexual attention or harassment.