Watch: Bird Mimics Caterpillar (and Other Animal Imposters)
Several animals have evolved to masquerade as very different species.
In nature, it doesn't always pay to be yourself. In fact, pretending to be something you're not can keep you alive.
Take the cinereous mourner (Laniocera hypopyrra), a bird that lives in the Amazon rain forest. Chicks of this species sport brilliant orange feathers with black polka dots—plumage that pretty much advertises them to passersby. (See "Masters of Deception: 5 Two-Faced Species.")
For a defenseless bird that can't even fly yet, you'd think this is a bad evolutionary strategy. That is, unless the predators mistake you for another creature entirely.
"The chicks of this species look like a hairy caterpillar," said Gustavo Londoño, a researcher at ICESI University in Colombia, "and that caterpillar is known to be toxic." (Related:
