Function of juvenile plumage in the northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis): Aggressive mimicry hypothesis

Multiple raptors show juvenile plumage that is substantially different from that of their parents. Here, we test the prediction that the colouration of the juvenile northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) resembling the colouration of the common buzzard (Buteo buteo) acts as a form of aggressive mimicry. The goshawk specialises in hunting larger birds and mammals up to the size of geese or hares, while the buzzard preys mostly on small rodents. Potential prey may thus consider juvenile goshawks as less dangerous raptors, and the juvenile goshawk may thus gain an advantage when hunting. We used the Eurasian magpie (Pica pica), a common prey of the goshawk, to test this prediction. We compared the behavioural responses of magpie parents defending their freshly fledged young towards stuffed dummies of an adult goshawk, juvenile goshawk, and buzzard. To be able to assess whether this behaviour differs from responses to a nest predator and a harmless bird we also presented a common raven (Corv..., , , Title of Dataset

Function of juvenile plumage in the northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis): Aggressive mimicry hypothesis

Description of the data and file structure

The data include information on the territory identity and individual birds within the magpie family. Further, there are two predictors, the dummy type and the sequence in which the dummy was presented, as each magpie pair was confronted with a series of dummies. Lastly, there are eight response variables describing the behaviour of magpies.

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Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data:
Original data.

Data was derived from the following sources:
Original data.