Bird Courtship and Mating

Introduction

What is Bird Courting?

1. Courting is when the bird attracts its mate, usually the male attracting the female.
2. The purpose of courting is for a bird to find the mate with the best chance of providing him or her with offspring.
3. Courting is also the act of the two birds bonding together before mating.
4. Some kinds of birds court each other in common areas, called communal display grounds. These are areas are neutral because they dont provide food or nesting, only the ability for the birds to choose mates. When you have multiple birds in courtship competition this occasionally results in them fighting each other.

Methods used By Birds to Attract their Mate

1. Every species of bird performs a slightly different courtship ritual.
2. By ritually displaying themselves to the females. Typically the male bird acts various exaggerations of day to day behavior to impress the female. Hawks courting displays are very spectacular, rising up to the sky and diving.
3. By guarding his territory and singing therein, attracting female birds into his area. This is why songbirds sing!
4. By building one or more nests. A female bird can then judge the quality of the nests to determine how good of a mate the builder is. Wrens are known to build multiple nests to attract females.
5. Plumage. This is the reason why male birds tend to be brighter and more colorful than female - it is to attract their mate! Many other males of the Grouse, Quail, and pheasant family have developed elaborate plumage to dazzle the females in display, as in the famous tail spread of the peacock.
6. Seabirds and waterfowl bob their heads, bow and flutter their wings to attract their mates.
7. Cranes are well known for their fantastic dancing as they begin their courtship.
8. Mourning Doves and mockingbirds also will fluff out their feathers and dance a little mating two-step.

Methods used By Birds to Bond Together During Courtship

1. Feeding. Often the male will feed the female as a gift. Sometimes the happens in the air, sometimes on the ground.
2. Singing. Sometimes the birds will sing to each other, often copying each other.
3. By ritually displaying to each other. The longer the display lasts, the closer the bond formed between them.

What is Bird Mating?

1. Bird Mating is when the birds reproduce together.
2. In most cases, closely related species have similar mating systems. This is probably due to their similar habitat and feeding behaviors. Ornithologists now believe that the ecological setting of a species helps determine what mating systems it uses.
3. Birds mate by joining their cloacas, with the male ejaculating sperm into the female's cloaca. Some species of birds - such as ostriches, ducks, geese, swans, chickens and turkeys do have a phallus - but it is different from the mammalian phallus.

Why Do Birds Mate?

1. To reproduce (obviously).
2. To find a partner, either for the breeding season or for life.
3. To share in the work of raising young.

Monogomous Birds

1. These are birds that stay with one partner for the period of raising young (and sometimes longer).
2. More then 90 percent of the world's bird species are monogamous for a breeding season.
3. Birds are more likely to stay together the next year if their breeding the year before was successful.
4. Several large birds are considered as mating for life. Among them are: swans, geese, eagles, and some owls.
5. Other pair bonds may be formed and last over several seasons. Doves, Robins, and others are on this list.
6. One reason for the high rate of monogamy among birds is the fact that male birds are just as adept at parental care as females. In most groups of animals, male parental care is rare, but in birds it is quite common; in fact, it is more extensive in birds than in any other vertebrate class. In birds, male care can be seen as important or essential to female fitness. "In one form of monogamy such as with obligate monogamy a female cannot rear a litter without the aid of a male" (Gowaty, 1983).
7. Pigeons mate until they find a different one. Most of the time they will stay mated as long as they are alive and together. Occasionally one will leave his hen or even pick up a second hen.

Polygynous Birds

1. These are birds that allow one male to have multiple female mating partners.
2. About 2% of birds are Polygynous. This is more common than their opposite, Polyandrous Birds.
3. The male Red-winged Blackbird achieves its polygyny by impressing first one female, then another. At any one moment it may have several females nesting on its territory, all in different stages of breeding.

Polyandrous Birds

1. These are birds that allow one female to have multiple male mating partners.
2. Polyandrous Birds are comparatively rare, only 1% of birds.
3. The female bird tends to 'act like a male' by being more colorful and leaving the eggs for the male to look after.

Promiscuous Birds

1. These are a birds with a rather chaotic social structure in which a female may mate with many males or a male with many females.
2. All of North America's hummingbirds are promiscuous breeders. The males defend large territories around important sources of food and then display to females coming to feed. Females may fly well beyond the territories of local males to find males with which to mate. The male will almost certainly never see its offspring or the nest, and most likely will not see the female for the one brief visit.
3. Some promiscous birds show commitment to their offspring, visiting one or more nests to help care for the young.

What are the Birds Roles After Mating?

1. The female bird's main task is to lay eggs.
2. The male bird's task is to feed the female and guard the territory.