Cameroon indigobird
The Cameroon indigobird (Vidua camerunensis) is a species of bird in the family Viduidae. It is considered by some authors to be a subspecies of the variable indigobird (Vidua funerea). They range from Sierra Leone to east Cameroon, north east Zaire and South Sudan. There are less than 10,000 Vidua camerunensis in total, which range over 20,000 km2 in the savannah and grasslands of South Africa. The birds have a distinct blue color with underlying brown feathers and a small white beak to crack nuts and seeds. There are many indigobird species in the world, and they are mainly known for their song mimicry. The different species of indigobirds are not morphologically different, but they do differ in the songs they choose to mimic. Ecology and behavior Cameroon indigobirds are known for song determination and mimicking the songs of other bird species. The males pick which songs to mimic; however, when one male chooses a song from a host bird, the other males mimic other songs from a different host species. This is an effective way to differentiate males when mimicking the songs. There are several distinct host species that the indigobirds mimic from; the most common are the black-bellied firefinch (Lagonosticta rara) and African firefinch (L. rubricata). The variation in how indigobirds mimic different songs is based on the host species. Researchers have thought that because different indigobird species sing different songs, they must be reproductively isolated. However, when a paternity test was done between the different species, it was found that the birds were not reproductively isolated. They concluded that indigobirds switch songs among several different hosts, but that this switching does not mean that the species are biologically different. In fact, they are very much related to one another in which they are not isolated from other species. Reproductive isolation cannot be determined just by the shifts of song mimicry from different hosts. The indigobirds also use song mimicry for sexual and natural selection. Male indigobirds are most territorial and aggressive when they hear their own song or the host song that they mimic. These birds know and recognize which song is the one they mimic, compared to what other species mimic. For natural selection, it is in the bird's favor to mimic another song compared to other species. They save resources because they do not have to fight with others to mark their territory, thus decreasing their aggressiveness. As for sexual selection, females are attracted to males that master the art of mimicry. A female decides to mate with the male who sings the song that is most known to the females. The eggs are laid in another host's nest instead of their own. Song discrimination is also very important in the young. They learn to sing and mimic songs in their sensitive period. It is very important in establishing their mimicry for the best fit in natural selection and reproduction with sexual selection. Brood parasites These birds are obligate brooding parasites, meaning they lay eggs