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This post presents amazing video clips of the courtship behaviour of six birds. Such amazing behaviour that is linked to appearance and build is worth thinking about just over 200 hundred years after the birth of Darwin. The post simply explains the behaviour in a single paragraph, gives a link for further study and leaves the reader to watch the short video.

Sage-Grouse

The sage-grouse from temperate North America, is one of the many species of birds that practice lekking, a behaviour in which the male birds gather and put on displays that aim to attract female birds. The female bird selects a male based on her judgement of the display. The most attractive males mate with many females strengthening the advantage of an attractive display.

Blue-Footed Booby

The Blue-footed Booby, a bird of the Galapagos islands, performs a comical looking dance for the single female it wishes to mate with. The dance emphasizes the blueness of its feet, to make it clear that they are of the same species. If the female accepts the approaches it joins in the dance.

The name “booby” comes from the Spanish term bobo, which means “Stupid” or “Fool”/”Clown” – this is understandable after watching the dance. There is a less humorous theory, which says Boobies were called stupid becaused the landed tamely on ships and could be caught and killed for food.

Lyrebird

The Lyrebird of Australia, attract its mate based on its amazing ability to sing complex songs and imitate other birds and all sorts of noises. The camera shutter and motor drive it imitates in this clip are uncanny. The Lyre bird sings from a mound it forms in a clearing when attracting females.

Bowerbirds

Bowerbirds build a bower to attract females. There are various styles of bower, from a clearing or avenue in the undergrowth, decorated with piles of different brightly coloured materials from the surroundings to complex hut like structures with different areas decorated with different materials.

Birds of Paradise

The birds of paradise from Indonesia, Torres Strait Islands, Papua New Guinea, and eastern Australia, are recognised as having developed some of their absolutely amazing plumage through natural selection – in effect the species changing over the years in response to what the female preferred. The video shows what are effectively cousins who have developed very different forms of attraction.

Clark’s Grebe

Clark’s Grebe (Aechmophorus clarkii) is a North American species of waterbird that, unlike many of the other birds in this post, forms lifelong relationship. The video shows a ritual dance that is an amazing display of synchronisation and togetherness.

In Ending

This is just a small selection of many just as amazing courtship displays in the world’s birds – it really quite amazing. However, to me the ones I’ve seen don’t match the dedication of the Bower Bird, the skill of the Lyrebird and the amazing grace of the Clark’s Grebe! I will keep looking though!

Photo credit – the images below were combined by the author.

Clarks Grebe - Calibas on Wikipedia under a GNU Free Documentation License; Boobie – pietsch in Animal Photos; Birds of Paradise - markaharper1 on Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license; Sage Grouse - National Park Service on Wikimedia Commons available in public domain; Lyre bird - Fir0002 on Wikimedia Commons under a GNU Free Documentation license; Bower bird - Matthew Hoelscher on Wikipedia under a Creative Commons license

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