Exploring Nature: Love Is In The Air

It’s late spring and love is in the air. At least for most birds.

Several species have prolonged and complicated courtships, often involving both visual and audio displays. For example, red-tailed hawks perform intricate flight displays during courtship, sometimes exchanging nest material and prey during the process.

Eagles may lock their talons and fall through the air together.

While not so dramatic, the male northern cardinal will often show off his bright red plumage and also will present food to the female he is courting. Not so dramatic as the eagle, but probably quite satisfying to the female cardinal.

Northern flickers fan out their tails and “dance” by swaying back and forth. Birds of paradise swish their lovely feathers and jump all around to impress the females.

Most birds mate for life, but this may not be very long as many small species have relatively short life spans. Fifteen years is a long life for many birds.

Birds sing to advertise their availability to potential mates and also to warn off rivals and proclaim a personal territory.

One of the masters of song is the northern mockingbird. The state bird of Texas can have well over 200 different songs in its repertoire. The Carolina wren can perform some 50 song phrases and the marsh wren can produce more than 200 different songs.

Birds produce sound with their syrix and can sing two different sounds at the same time, one from each side of the syrix. Wow.

Take a listen and see if you can hear bird song in your neighborhood — it’s really quite lovely.