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To explore how this sophisticated ruse works, biologist Branislav Igic, then at the Australian National University, and his colleagues positioned a taxidermied currawong near thornbill nests while broadcasting nestling distress calls.

At a fraction the size of a currawong, the diminutive songbird can't rely on its might to spook the nest-raiding bandits.

According to the research team, the grasswren and currawong probably disappeared early in the 20th century.

When a pied currawong goes looking for brown thornbill nestlings to eat, the thornbill parents call wolf—or, actually, they call hawk.

The false alarms fool the currawong into thinking that its own predator, the brown goshawk, is nearby.