When scared, baby roller birds vomit in your general direction.

Photo: flickr/Ken and NyettaMost baby birds are pretty helpless - they basically just sit in their nest and hope that predators don't find them. Eurasian rollers, however, are more proactive: when scared, they vomit an orange liquid, which has been hypothesized to serve as a defense against predators. Here, the researchers tested this hypothesis by analyzing the chemical composition of the vomit and testing whether it actually deters predators. They found that the vomit contains several defensive compounds derived from the birds' food (plants and grasshoppers), and these compounds make the vomit distasteful to predators (represented here by dogs, who, as we know, don't necessarily find vomit distasteful in general). Does this remind anyone else of Jurassic Park?Armed Rollers: Does Nestling’s Vomit Function as a Defence against Predators? "Chemical defences against predators are widespread in the animal kingdom although have been seldom reported in birds. Here, we investigate the possibility ...