Japanese pufferfish males expend gargantuan amounts of energy building complex sand nests to attract females, who lay their eggs there. Reminds remind one of bower-birds among others...

A foregut-fermenting bird was long considered a paradox. But what about the hoatzin, a curious South American bird known locally as the "stinking pheasant" thanks to its smell of fresh cow manure?

Obligate brood parasitism has evolved several times independently in birds. Apart from the cuckoos, it can be found in four other, only distantly related families.

What on earth could an elephant or treehoppers have in common with a seismometer?

The star-nosed mole is famous for, well, its nose, but do you have any idea what these peculiar 'tentacles' are for? The answer is rather touching and, of course, convergent...

The best known example of echolocating birds are the South American oilbirds (Steatornis caripensis), so called because their flesh yields abundant oil.

Birds, in the sense of flying descendants of feathered reptiles (a more expansive group than the "true" birds in today's skies), evolved several times from within the theropods.

One of the most well known examples of convergence among birds is between hummingbirds, sunbirds and honeyeaters, all of which are small, dominantly nectar-feeding birds.

Among reptile taxa with beak structures, we find several cases of convergent evolution, for example between turtles, Uromastyx lizards, a number of herbivorous dinosaurs and the tuatara (Sphenodon) of New Zealand.

One of the most surprising convergences amongst animals is that seen between a small fish that lives in coral sands, known as the sandlance, and the lizards known as chameleons.

A number of reptile species have been discovered in the Mesozoic fossil record, bearing feathers that were apparently used to support gliding locomotion, rather than true, powered flight as we see in present day birds.

Madagascar and New Zealand were once home to giant herbivorous birds. And the plants have not forgotten...

Pursued by the paparazzi? Watch out for those animals equipped with telephoto lenses...

Lysozymes are common antibacterial enzymes that protect our eyes and nose from infection, but some animals have recruited them for a rather different purpose...

House sparrows are known to gain access to shopping malls by flying in front of sensors that operate sliding doors, whilst herons have been shown to be adept fishers using baits and lures.

Filter feeding is most familiar in the baleen whales , but closely analogous arrangements have appeared at least twice in the birds, first the flamingos and second the sub-antarctic broad-billed prions.

Intriguing ecological and morphological parallels can be found among the Neoaves. Many of these forms were initially believed to be each other's closest relatives, but are now widely recognised as classic examples of convergence. Think how similar swifts and swallows are, but they are only distantly related.

In the great majority of birds both the colour of the feathers (plumage) and the skin is a result of so-called structural colouration which arises from the interaction of the light with ordered biological tissue

Ever tried eating a newspaper? Don't. Plant cell walls contain cellulose, which is notoriously difficult to digest. Considering that all vertebrates lack the enzymes to attack this polysaccharide, how do so many of them manage to survive on a plant diet?

The striking plumage of the turaco owes its colour to turacoverdin. Interestingly, this is a copper based pigment and is also convergent in the jacanas, a group of wading birds.

What animals can drop stones into a water-filled tube to bring floating food within reach or bend wire to form a hook? Obviously chimpanzees? No, New Caledonian crows have evolved sophisticated tool use too.

Suffering from insomnia? Fruit flies do as well...

You think woodpeckers are unique? Consider the ovenbirds. Or even the curious aye-aye.

Exampes of convergece in bird plumage are the well-known tendency for different groups of tropical sea-birds to have dark plumage, and what may represent Müllerian mimicry in the pitohuis, which are famous for their convergent use of toxic alkaloids.

Application of insecticides, such as against mosquitoes, has been documented in several primates and birds.

Like other birds hummingbirds are warm-blooded, but so independently are the hawk-moths, which like a number of insects have evolved thermoregulation.

Vultures are not only charistmatic birds in the popular imagination, but are strikingly convergent, especially regarding feeding types...

The independent evolution of parental care is far more widespread than birds and mammals, extending as far as molluscs and echinoderms!

Social play is the hall-mark of the most intelligent of this planet’s species, and there is a particularly striking convergence between birds and mammals.

The specific case of a penis with a hydrostatic structure, as well as an array of collagen fibres that allows both expansion and guards against aneurysms, has evolved in a strikingly convergent fashion in mammals and turtles.

Burrowing owls place pieces of collected dung. These attract insects such as beetles that are then eaten by the owls.

Personality in the vertebrates might, therefore, be deeply embedded in their phylogeny, although this does not rule out the convergent appearance of more complex personality traits in more advanced vertebrates, notably birds and mammals.

Complex interactions between males and females prior to mating have evolved independently many times. Amongst the most familiar examples are leks.

In a number of cases one eye is used in preference to another. This convergent phenomenon is found in octopus (cephalopods), dolphins, birds, and other animals.