A girl for every boy?
News from the RSPB site
Unlikely if you're a bird facing extinction, say researchers.
A new study published in the leading ornithological journal Ibis has uncovered that for the vast majority of bird species, there are more males than females.
The discovery suggests that populations of many of the world's birds facing extinction could be overestimated because scientists often base population estimates on the number of males.
Males are usually more brightly plumaged than females and the males of many species sing to attract mates and defend territories, making them easier to detect. Researchers then take this as an estimate of the number of breeding pairs, assuming an equal number of males and females in the population.
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