雄性大亭鸟(Ptilonorhynchus nuchalis)会耍一些小把戏来吸引雌鸟的注意。他们花费大量的时间来打造和维护一座结构精巧的“亭子”，以吸引大量异性的眼球。亭子的的东西两面是由树枝构成的墙，庭院布满的小装饰品—诸如小石块、树枝、贝壳和骨头—由南向北延伸。
大亭鸟与它的亭子（图：Science/AAAS; J. J. Harrison/Creative Commons）
去年，研究人员发现，雄鸟在摆弄这些小饰品时会将最大的放在离雌鸟站立处最远的地方。从雌鸟的角度来看，所有的装饰物看起来就一样大，这种叫做强行透视法的幻象手法是电影摄影师和摄像师常用的技巧。研究人员记录了澳大利亚北部20只雄大亭鸟的亭子的情况，结果发现越能按照这种方式摆放饰物的雄鸟越能获得与雌鸟交配的机会。这种幻象相比那些摆的比较差的饰物能更长时间的吸引雌鸟的注意力，使得雄鸟有足够的时间来完成交配。该发现发表在最新的Science上。
这种模式也可能表明，能做出这种幻象的雄鸟具备雌鸟正在寻找的某些其他特质。
Illusions Promote Mating Success in Great Bowerbirds
Laura A. Kelley, John A. Endler
Sexual selection studies normally compare signal strengths, but signal components and sensory processing may interact to create misleading or attention-capturing illusions. Visual illusions can be produced by altering object and scene geometry in ways that trick the viewer when seen from a particular direction. Male great bowerbirds actively maintain size-distance gradients of objects on their bower courts that create forced-perspective illusions for females viewing their displays from within the bower avenue. We show a significant relationship between mating success and the female’s view of the gradient; this view explains substantially more variance in mating success than the strength of the gradients. Illusions may be widespread in other animals because males of most species display to females with characteristic orientation and distance, providing excellent conditions for illusions.
文献链接：https://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6066/335.abstract?sid=40e6a03b-ca10-45b4-9699-7765b98faa04
