Spring is here, everything is revived, and the sexy males are dancing a cool courtship dance again.
The sexiest bird, the Grebe, dances cool courtship dances. ｜MURRAY COOPER/MINDEN PICTURES
The author | Liu Tiantong, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University
Among the courtship behavior of animals, birds play the most tricks. For example, programs such as "Do Not Disturb" and "Brother Chasing the Light", in fact, birds play more than humans.
Although Darwin had long said that females would make mating choices based on some characteristics of males, until the mid-19th century, many biologists were still convinced that females had no interest in males, but simply took themselves away after the males had finished competing.
In fact, the female bird is not only face control, body control, voice control, but also asks if there is a house, dancing handsome or not...
The most beautiful boy on the blind date scene
In the study of mate selection and blind dates, the petite bird (also called the pygmy bird) can be said to be pure fire. Not only can you sing and dance rap, but sometimes you can also take a whole space step.
Petty Pelican performs space steps.
In one famous scene of male swallowtail petite courtship, two male birds will display gorgeous feathers while performing the "double bird dance". This dance is very well done:
The two brothers lined up one after the other on the branches, the one in front of them taking off quickly and retreating backwards at the same time, their wings vibrating rapidly—more than 100 times per second, even pressing the head of the hummingbird—causing the feathers to rub against each other and make a pleasant sound similar to that of a violin. The second player in the back grabbed the gap, rushed forward, and continued until the female made a deliberate choice and successfully held wings with one of the male guests.
Swallowtails dance the double bird dance.
Sometimes four male petite birds can directly ride the wind and waves to debut into a group for a powerful group dance. At each performance, there are usually more than 10 male guests willing to act as spectators and silently hold the scene around.
Male petioles perform a four-bird dance.
Three minutes on stage, several years offstage, Jiao, can be said to be an extremely hard trainee (suddenly four shots). Ornithologists have observed that male swallowtails practice alone or in groups in "practice rooms" where no female is present, and if nothing else, find a partner. The other kind of blue-capped petite is very particular about "makeup", it is green when it is a child, and when it is an adult, it can change into a blue hat and a black robe on stage, highlighting the cool style. There are also gold-collared petite grebes, which are extremely shape-oriented, naturally muscular, and look like they have a lot of iron.
The gold-collared petite performs a backflip.
The strongest variety show in the bird world created by Jiaolu, although it looks energetic, but it is not easy to record once. In order to observe and record the behavior of the petite ibis, ornithologists often lie on their stomachs for more than ten hours, waiting for the females to take their seats and begin to perform.
Scholars once had a doubt: after a performance, how many male guests can successfully hold their wings? To answer this question, a simple idea is to find all the newly hatched young birds in a petite group and see who their fathers are.
However, it sounds simple, but it is a big project to do, and the first step to find a bird's nest is a lot of energy. In the tropical rainforest where the petite birds live, finding a bird's nest is like finding a needle in a haystack. In 2007, behavioral ecologist Emily DuVal led a team to find hundreds of nests of sharp-tailed birds and used genetics to map the correspondence between males and young birds. They were surprised to find that 92% of the 413 nests tested were from male birds who debuted in the same C position, while the other few who had the opportunity to become fathers were generally strong competitors who could debut in the C position the next year. Simply put, the champion has meat to eat, and the runner-up has only soup to drink.
The Wind And Wind Skill is engraved in the genes
What is the decision of the petite? The answer is in the genes. In March, at an online conference hosted by the Society for Integrated and Comparative Biology, ornithologists presented the sequencing results of the genomes of four species of colts and picked out genes that might be associated with brain and muscle activity during their courtship.
Previous evidence suggests that during evolution, the staple food of the ancestors of the grebe changed from insects to fruits little by little, and food sources became more and more abundant. Scientists speculate that it is precisely because of the change in the diet that the petite bird can produce energy surplus, have more energy to sing and dance rap, and attract the opposite sex. By comparing the genomes of insect-eating corianders with their fruit-eating cousins, the researchers found that the taste receptors of the yellow-crowned coriander, as a kind of coleus that simply jumped and did not eat fruit, had become more sensitive to sweetness, indicating that the taste evolution of the coddle occurred before the evolution of behavior, thus providing supporting evidence for this conjecture.
However, the complex behavior of birds is difficult to accurately explain with one or several genes, and there is still a lot of research to be done to understand the molecular genetic basis behind the special behavior of the petite.
(Off-topic: Learn from Jiaojiao, do a blind date show with talent display as the main body, it is not good, it can explode. ）
In addition to dancing, you can also show love in this way
Birds have a variety of social behaviors, but they are always inseparable from sounds, appearances and movements. Females are usually extremely picky, discerning the subtlest differences in each suitor's aspects, never putting a little water on their mate selection; and for the sake of successful blind dates, each male bird, even if not as versatile as a petite wren, will take out what he has learned all his life, just to find a beautiful home.
For example, male beautiful frigate birds are the most likely to "pluck out the heart socket", their inflated red throat sac is like a huge red heart on the chest, and the throat sac vibrates and sounds like a drum, trying to impress the sweetheart in front of them.
Male Beauty Frigate Bird | Handbook of Bird Biology
In contrast, the black lyre chicken can move its hands without moving its mouth, declare war on the love enemy with a high-pitched cry and a vertically extended tail feather, and stage a rookie pecking at each other that is more enthusiastic than the Bo people.
Male black grouse fighting courtship | Handbook of Bird Biology
The brown gardener bird is a true craftsman in the bird world, although its appearance is not good, but relying on a diligent mouth, using fruits, flowers, fungi, snail shells, feathers, to build a natural villa that makes three-year-old children shoot, waiting for a lady who appreciates high-end design to throw an olive branch.
Brown gardener bird built house. ｜Handbook of Bird Biology
In fact, while bird behaviors are so numerous and complex, if analyzed on a risk-benefit approach, each behavior has two sides to the individual. For example, when a male bird that already has a mate jumps out of the territory to show itself and look for new mating options, although there will be more opportunities to pass on its genes, it is also at risk of being attacked by other male birds or predators, and it is likely that the chicken and egg will be beaten, the new mate will not be found, and the mate will be snatched away by other males.
Similarly, when a female accepts courtship from a male other than her mate, she has a greater chance of accepting quality genes, but also carries a greater risk of being infected by sexually transmitted microorganisms. The long history of natural evolution has given us the answer as to whether it is risky or beneficial.
No matter what you say, hurry up and sing and practice dancing with iron, and use it later.
Resources
[1] Handbook of Bird Biology, 3rd edition
[2]https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/genes-behind-sexiest-birds-planet
[3] https://www.manakinsrcn.org/
The article is published by the "Popular Science Research Society" (ID: cspbooks) public account, please indicate the source when reprinting.