Temperature is rising, sun is shining, Spring has come, love is in the air... and birds are mating! So, a perfect choice for this week's contest!
Mating in birds can be a very ellaborate process. In the mating season, different species have different approaches in order to reach the same goal: find a partner and go wild!
The act itself is normally short, but the fun and sometimes long part is in the courtship! It is up to the males to convince the females that they are the best choice, and they do it in a variery of ways: some engage in ellaborate dances, others in endless singing; some use plummage displays, and others combine one or several courtship behaviours!
In the bird kingdom... there are also the wild ones!!! I'm kind of imagining what went down here: a couple fell in love, couldn't wait any longer, and decided to enjoy the pleasures of lovemaking right there in the lawn. And then... Bob appears.
"Hey, what are you doing"?
"Bob, you pervert! Go away, we're busy!!"
"Wow, that looks fun! Can I join in? Can I? Can I?"
"NOOOO! What's wrong with you??"
"Yeaaaaahhhhh!!! This is fun!!"
"Bob, you're ruining it!! Go awayyyyy!!
Or maybe it was just my vivid imagination... 😁😁😁
These cute guys are coconut lorikeets, Trichoglossus haematodus, and they were having fun in a bird park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
As an example of what is plummage display during courtship, here's how a male great bustard, Otis tarda, looks like when he's trying to get lucky:
And to compare, this is the same male when he's not putting up a show:
The hand you see on the photo is from one of the staff members, since these were taken in a breeding facility in Spain.
Let's see all those mating birds out there! 🙂
Happy birding everyone!
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