In the world of birds, mating rituals are a fascinating aspect of life. I mean, there are so many different courtship rituals. Male hummingbirds for example, fly amazingly high speed patterns directly in front of the perched females. The male Ruby-throated Hummingbird flies in a gigantic U-shaped pattern up to 40 feet in the air, all to impress a female. Male Ruffed Grouse beat their wings so fast and often that is sounds like he is beating on a drum.

Male Eastern Bluebirds will perch in front of a female and wave his brightly colored wings to catch a female’s attention. The list of crazy courtship rituals goes on and on.

This spring I have been spending some time with some birds that take the courtship ritual to a new level. It is the Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis). The Western Grebe is a handsome black and white water bird with blood red eyes. It has a long thin neck and a thin yellow bill. This bird looks like it is well suited for spending a lot of time underwater. It feeds mainly on small fish along with many species of aquatic insects, a few amphibians and most interesting and unusual are feathers. The adult grebes feed the babies small feathers as they grow. A typical young grebe will consume hundreds of feathers by the time it reaches adulthood.

Feathers taken from the adults can be found in stomachs of chicks only a few days old. Studies show that fifty percent of the stomach content may be feathers. So what’s the purpose of this behavior? Apparently feathers help to pad the stomach from the sharp fish bones which is eats in great quantizes. Also, a tight ball of feathers acts to grind up the fish in the birds gizzard and aids in digestion.

When a bird moves or holds itself in a particular way, it signals a great deal of information to another bird of the same or different species. This movement is called a display. There are displays for many reasons. Courtship employs many displaying rituals.

The Western Grebe has a crazy ritual that is used for reinforcing the bond between the male and the female. Whenever the male and female are separated, say for example one is out hunting for food, upon returning the pair swim out to greet each other. The greeting consists of facing each other and lowering their heads down to the waters surface. At this point they will make all sorts of loud vocalizations. This can last for just one or two seconds or up to fifteen seconds. Then suddenly the pair springs up out of the water and runs across the waters surface. Their bodies are tall and erect. Their heads are cocked forward as their feet kick up a large rooster-tail of water. This behavior is called “rushing”. The rushing can last just a few feet or more likely it will go for twenty or thirty feet.

At the end of the rushing the pair will dive forward into the water head first, thus terminating the rushing underwater. Shortly after the rush, the pair will sometimes dive to the bottom of the lake and grab a beak full of weeds. When they surface the will present the weeds to each other, again in a much ritualized way. The pair stands up tall in the water and with their necks stretched out they present the weeds to each other. This may last for up to a minute before they drop the weeds and return to normal behavior.

All of this elaborate behavior serves to reinforce the bonds between the male and female after being separated. Witnessing this behavior firsthand and to spend the many hours watching this behavior, I find it incredibly interesting. I hope you find this story interesting also. Until next time

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com