ArticleBiology letters2024
The flashy escape: support for dynamic flash coloration as anti-predator defence.
Article in Biology letters, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Hot temperature during development alters iridescence inPNAS nexus · 2026Article
- Iridescence, polarisation and directionality of Morpho butterfly displays.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Are Toxic Butterflies More Easily Detected by Human 'Predators'?Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Insertion of an invading retrovirus regulates a novel color trait in swordtail fish.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Complementary approaches to measure predation pressure on butterfly populations in Australia.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Fiddler crab claws work as a deflection antipredator defence.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Article
- The flashy escape: support for dynamic flash coloration as anti-predator defence.Biology letters · 2024Article
- Prey movement, size, and glossiness interact to impact praying mantid attack behaviors.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Dynamic flash coloration is a type of antipredator coloration where intermittently appearing colour patterns in moving animals misdirect predator attacks by obscuring the precise location and trajectory of the moving prey. Birds and butterflies with differing dorsoventral wing coloration or iridescent surface structures may potentially benefit from such effects. However, we lack an understanding of what makes for an effective dynamic flash colour design and how much it benefits the carrier. Here, we test the effect of colour flashing using small passerine birds preying upon colourful, moving, virtual 'prey' stimuli on a touchscreen. We show that at fast speeds, green-to-blue flashing colour patterns can reduce the likelihood of pecks hitting the target, induce greater error in targeting accuracy and increase the number of pecks at a stimulus relative to similarly coloured non-flashing targets. Our results support the idea that dynamic flash coloration can deflect predatory attacks at fast speeds, but the effect may be the opposite when moving slowly.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.