Bird courtship behaviour

Summer approaches.
Most of our winter migrant birds have left. Amongst the last to leave this year again are the Rosy Starlings. And amongst the first of the summer arrivals as usual are the Golden Orioles.


Birding is thin in Rajasthan at this time of the year, so am really looking forward to our trip to the Himalayas in May 2011.

Of course, with birds (as in all of Nature) nothing comes to a standstill at any time. The hot months are when many of our resident birds breed. In general, I am loath to hanging around nest sites. So, even though we have observed many nests being constructed these past few weeks, I really do not have any images to upload here. What I do have is some records of interesting courtship behaviour and an uncommon feeding (at least to me) video.

Have a look at these two images (from a full series of 6) of a pair of White-browed Wagtails .




This was at Smriti Van (see earlier Post) in Jaipur. Both birds were excitedly vocal when I approached them. Soon they flew closer and perched on the newly constructed cement wall of the water-filteration plant. One individual kept ducking his head, while the other appeared to look disinterested in the proceedings. And then the male did something I've never seen before.

He executed a perfect headstand and forward roll !

I was too surprised to photograph this the first time, but caught him on his second attempt.

I'm not sure what his lady love thought of his bizarre antics because she soon flew away...




The second courtship behaviour episode is that of a pair of Alexandrine Parakeets. These birds nest in fairly good numbers at Grass Farm Nursery, Jaipur on tall trees.


Salim Ali's books describe this behaviour beautifully, so I am not going to even try and do so here. I think this photograph is a fairly typical pose of a lovestruck couple. There is much eye contact as the male extends his foot towards the female 'pawing' at the air, and tries to liplock with her ...







Next is a short video of one of our commonest birds feeding. The Red-wattled Lapwing. But I can't recall having observed this technique before.




'On the art of hunting insects hiding under leaf litter' ....








Cheers !

Sahdev