Hacker News

Male aggression leads to a lot of messed up shit. But some stuff is funny. There is this species of hummingbirds where males develop a bright purple star shaped plumage around their face. About 25 percent of females develop these characteristics too. Because bluffing yourself out of male aggression, outweighed the pro's of camouflage against predators. The biologist said that people often ask how it influnenced fheir chances at mating, to which he replied with: "I've seen male hummingbirds try to mate with a stump, so I don't expect it to be much of a problem." Adding to this, is that if too many females develop a male phenotype, the signaling "I am terretorial, stay away or I'll attack" of the feathers loses it's meaning and thus its protection.