hello tweeties,

just in time for valentine's day, here's a story about monogamy in
birds. the birds in this study are the endangered Gouldian finches of
Australia. they are a polymorphic species and females choose mates
that look similar to them. what happens when they are stuck with a
mate they didn't choose? they breed anyway, but the females become
very stressed out. i interviewed the scientists who did this work and
wrote this little story about their work and published it at the
Guardian (it includes gorgeous photographs of this stunning species,
too):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2011/feb/09/2

cheers,

--
GrrlScientist
Devorah Bennu, PhD
birdologist at gmail.com
http://www.grrlscientist.net/
http://twitter.com/GrrlScientist
http://www.guardian.co.uk/grrlscientist
http://blogs.nature.com/grrlscientist/
American Expat living in Frankfurt, Germany