Abstract
Many animals mimic the behavior or the appearance of venomous snakes. When humans or other potential predators place their hand near the nest of tits belonging to the family Paridae (and a few other species), the incubating female performs a hissing display that mimics the inhalation hiss of a viper or another snake. They hiss vigorously while lunging their head forward and shaking their wings and tail, repeating this behavior several times. The structure of the hiss in tits is similar to that of the inhalation hiss of a snake, providing evidence of significant convergence of the mimic toward the model. The behavior of individual females is repeatable among trials. Individuals that flew away from their nest box only performed the hissing display on 6% of later trials, when present at their box, whereas individuals that did not fly away hissed on 28% of occasions, consistent with great tits Parus major either cautiously flying away or staying put on their nest while actively defending it. Individuals that flew away produced fewer chicks than individuals that stayed and hissed. The hissing display was more common when snakes were more abundant: 1) When breeding late during the season; 2) when breeding at sites with more snakes; and 3) when breeding in subtropical and tropical China with a higher abundance of snakes than in Denmark with a lower abundance. The frequency of nest predation was higher in sites with no snakes, and the frequency of predation increased with decreasing frequency of hissing display. These findings are consistent with expectations for frequency-dependent selection acting on snake mimicry.
Highlights
Many animals mimic the behavior or the appearance of venomous snakes
Among birds that reacted to the nest box visit there appeared to be 2 kinds of individuals, those that readily flew away, which rarely engaged in hissing, and those that stayed put and often hissed
Tits perform a snake-like display when inside their nest box by hissing at and thrusting their head toward any intruder including a human checking the contents of the nest box
Summary
When humans or other potential predators place their hand near the nest of tits belonging to the family Paridae (and a few other species), the incubating female performs a hissing display that mimics the inhalation hiss of a viper or another snake. They hiss vigorously while lunging their head forward and shaking their wings and tail, repeating this behavior several times. All vipers produce inhalation hissing sounds with a frequency ranging from 40 to 12,000 Hz (Aubret and Mangin 2014), and many species of birds perform a hissing display that closely mimics the sound of such a snake when confronted by a human or another potential predator (Bowles 1909; Sherman 1910; Coward 1920; Pickens 1928; Jourdain 1929; Burleigh 1930; Cox 1930; Grinnell et al 1930; Jouard 1932; Odum 1941; Allen 1943; Bent 1946; Brooksbank 1949; Dixon 1949; Hinde 1952; Lohrl 1964; Gompertz 1967; Smith 1975, 1977; Czaplicki et al 1976; Dixon 1983; Klump and Shalter 1984; Apel and Weise 1986; Krams et al 2014)
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