Romance runs the world, and as years of zoology have taught us, it is not the reserve of human beings anymore. Animals and birds have special ways of showing their commitment to their partners, and many of them go to the extent of dying for their love, although birds don’t do that a lot. Some birds, however, display romantic characters very close to what you see in human beings. While passionate lovers are described as love birds, only a few people take time to study birds in love. Here are 10 birds that entirely complete the definition of the term “lovebirds;” Oh, and they include the actual lovebirds!
Albatrosses
Albatrosses have sealed their spot at the most romantic birds in the world and probably the only species that never divorce. Their journey to finding a mate has one of the most beautiful dances you will ever see. All the “unmarred” birds gather at the place where they were nested and break into a dance. The females start dancing with the males whose dance moves they like, hoping they don’t see one with better moves. The match-up dances continue for hours and sometimes days until the couple develops a unique dancing pattern.
With 12ft wings spread out, beaks swinging from side to side and legs making the moves, each pair creates its own little haven that is so breathtaking. After agreeing on a partner, the birds build a nest and mate. The couple never divorces because they meet every mating season, no matter how far apart they were after their last mating season. The males tend to cheat on the females sometimes, though!
The Birds Of Paradise
Birds of paradise males have to earn their mate through every means possible. It starts with a thorough cleaning of the dance floor, including shaking surrounding trees for anything that might fall and disrupt the courtship. Some males even go to the extent of scrubbing the branches just to impress the ladies. The next step is putting up the best song and dance in the neighbourhood. They put up a high-pitched song to attract females.
When the lady comes, the male breaks into the finest breakdance you’ve ever seen. He raises the feathers around the chest to form a circle then starts moving his head from side to side while flapping his wings to make extra-musical beats. The beautiful dance has to continue until the female is impressed enough to mate. It is by far the most glorious dance ever seen in the bird world.
Bowerbirds
Bowerbirds build bowers, but only the most romantic men get to turn their bowers into a home. Their journey to getting a bride is long and tiresome as they have to build the most beautiful bower in the world and, most importantly, decorate them with beautiful colours. The males now prefer using plastics, and blue seems to be their favourite colour. The beautiful decorations can be anything from bottle tops to your hair clip as long as the males can move it to its bower.
The males are also forced to renovate the bowers every mating season to ensure they are in perfect shape. When the female comes by, the male starts singing and dancing to impress her. The female then inspects the bower before accepting the male as a mate. The slightest mistake will cost the male the season’s mating rights, so they have to put in all their effort.
Grebes
What is more romantic than cat-walking with your mate on water? While all grebes make great dance moves during courtship, none does it better than the Clarke’s and Western Grebes. During the mating season, mating age Grebes meet on a lake and start matching themselves into pairs. The spectacle begins with the presentation of gifts, which include weeds and plants.
The potential couple then takes some time to know each other with uniform neck dances and teases, including timed dives, pecks, and cheek to cheek dances. When impressed with each other’s moves, the couple takes to the water running on water in uniform steps while dancing neck to neck and creating sparkling waves. The dances continue until the couple’s moves are perfectly matched, after which they proceed to become partners.
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The Sage-Grouse
The Sage grouse got their name because they live in sage bushes in North America and happen to be one of the most romantic birds in the world. Unlike other males who have to impress one female at a time, male Sage-Grouses have to beat other males in an open-air dance known as a lek to win the girls. The main issue here is that you may win as many girls as they like you, or you may walk away with nothing.
The males dance in circles while moving their yellow porches up and down, creating a musical swish sound. Girls look for males that can inflate their porches the most, and the ones that have the strongest yellow colour get most females. The dance can be long and tiresome for other males as females coming to the lek may all decide to mate with the same male leaving the rest to dance their hearts out for nothing.
The Swan
Swans are the only birds you will find, creating a heart shape with their bowed necks with their spouse. While the heart shape is entirely a coincidence, their romance is one of the deepest ones in the world. Of all the myths about swans, only one holds true; They mate for life. As you may know by now, selecting a life partner is a tough process, and so their show of romance is quite thorough.
Most males have something to attract a female when they meet at the breeding sites. Some carry special feathers while others put up the swan dance. American swans have a bent windpipe so they can honk. After mating, the birds are bonded for life, and the male always helps the female warm the eggs before they hatch. Australian female swans tend to cheat on their males a lot, though!
The Great Hornbill
Great Hornbill ladies only accept the guy that “cooks” the best food, and that is important because that means her survival during the nesting period during which females stay in the nest, and the male has to feed her. The birds are monogamous, and once they reach mating age, the males line up with fruits and seeds to please the females.
The female accepts food from multiple males at first before deciding on the one best male and starts accepting food only from him. The couple then goes into the forest from tree to tree, looking for the best nest. The male has to choose the best nest before the female accepts to move in with him. Their method is one of the most romantic of any birds in the world. Once accepted, the relationship is until death as the couple raises chicks together every year.
Lovebirds
These little parrots have lost their names as it is now only used to describe human lovers. They are also monogamous and tend to mate for life. When choosing a mate, the male, who may be as young as 2 months old, has to prove his love for the female. The rituals start with offerings of gifts, which may range from rare seeds to beautiful twigs.
Once they form a pair, the two lovers never leave each other. They forage together for food, mate, and take care of their chicks together every year. If one mate dies or is taken away, the other bird is emotionally distressed and tend to mourn just like human beings. In some cases, if a mate dies, the remaining partner may die soon afterwards.
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Flamingoes
The flamingo dance is a whole concert created by thousands of flamingoes for flamingo singles to get life partners. It is one of the most glorious natural events ever seen on earth. The most famous one is the annual flamingo dance of Laguna Brava in Argentina, where all flamingo singles from Chile and Bolivia gather to dance.
The males line up and start dancing with their heads raised. As they move, the females watch. Every male has to develop their own unique dancing pattern to impress the females. Through the thousands of dancing males, the females somehow manage to pick the partner they are most impressed with and mate with him for life afterwards.
Adelie Penguins
Yes, Penguins can be romantic too, and they are very good at what they do! With Adelie penguins, the test for the males is how well they can create a home and whether they are fattened enough to fast. The males have to come early to the nesting site to reconstruct their nests from the previous mating season. Potential new fathers have the hardest job because they must select the best spot and pick out the best rocks, sticks, and other materials on the shore best suited for keeping eggs warm. When the females arrive, each female investigates the nests that belong to their mates from the previous season.
They also inspect the male to ensure he is fattened enough to stay on the nest, incubating the eggs without running to the ocean for some food. If the male falls short of any of these two requirements, the female will move on to find a new partner. After hatching, the males have to stay on the nest and incubate the eggs and still take care of the chicks when they hatch. Oh, and sometimes, the females can expel fellow females if they find a good catch.