Mammal ear mimicry: A hypothesis on the behavioural function of owl ‘horns’

The Evolution of Bird Coloration and Plumage Elaboration

“…are thought to mimic snakes (Swynnerton, 1916;Hall et al, 1966;Diamond, 1982;Edelstam, 1985;Dumbacher et al, 1992). The ear tufts of owls may be used to intimidate conspecifics by mimicking the ears of mammalian predators on owls (Mysterud and Dunker, 1979). None of these supposed mimicry systems have been studied in any detail; the often cited mimicry of drongos by black flycatchers, for example, is based on the observations of a single cat presented with one dead bird of each of several species (Swynnerton, 1916:548).…”