Many bird species form close pair bonds. We don’t know what “love” is for a bird (we’re not even fully sure what “love” is for a human—it’s been debated for millennia!). What we do know is that birds engage in courtship rituals, some of them quite elaborate. Here we’ll admire three Pennsylvania bird species pairing off through detailed, choreographed movements that they, and we, find attractive—in other words, they’ll be dancing!

Pileated Pole Dancing

Let’s start with the trees. Pileated Woodpeckers, the largest woodpeckers in the Americas and third largest in the world, begin their courtship in February or March. The courtship includes loud noises, drumming, and silent dances. The dances often wind around a tree, involving coordinated head swings, wing displays, and hops up and down the trunk. Once a pair has finished courting, they stay together for life.

Note that sometimes two females or two males will also engage in this kind of dance, likely as a territorial dispute. To be sure you’re seeing a male-female pair, look for a red stripe on the cheek leading off from the bill; that’s a male (bear in mind sometimes the stripe appears darkish red). Look for a black stripe in the same place on the second bird; that’s a female. The red crest of the male is also more extensive than that of the female, extending all the way from the back of the head to the bill; the female’s does not reach the bill.

Artistic Swimming

Pied-billed Grebes live on calm ponds, lakes, and marshes with a mix of dense vegetation and open water. So naturally their flirting is aquatic. Their courtship ritual has several aspects. The males of these usually silent birds call out in the spring to attract females. Eventually when a male and female come together, they dance, lifting their breasts out of the water while flapping vigorously. In another set of synchronized motions, as they swim they snap their heads towards each other while twirling around in a coordinated pirouette. In addition, although Pied-billed Grebes are excellent swimmers that easily move deep enough to avoid disturbing the water’s surface, sometimes males and females show off to each other by racing at or just below the surface to create an impressive path of ripples.

Below are fun links to view these behaviors:

Calling for a mate (the whole video is lovely; the Pied-billed Grebe part begins at minute 3):
Breast lifting
Pirouette
Ripple dance
For more on Pied-billed Grebe courtship and reproduction, including adorable video footage of their babies, you can also click here.

Acrobatic courtship in the air

A sight not to be missed! In adolescence, Bald Eagles hone their worthiness as mates by practicing aerial acrobatics. Having perfected their technique, an adult male and female lock their talons in mid-air and then spiral downwards together in “cartwheels,” letting go shortly before hitting the ground. Having proved their skill in flying to each other, they then bond for life, occasionally repeating the ritual.

To see the spiraling cartwheels in action, click here.

You can count yourself fortunate if you see this display in person. Red-tailed Hawks sometimes perform the same courtship stunt, so keep an eye on them, too.

The dances of courting Pileated Woodpeckers, Pied-billed Grebes, and Bald Eagles are only a few of the intricate mating rituals in the avian world. To learn more and be amazed, check out the articles here.

Christine M. Du Bois, Coordinator of the Lansdowne Bird Town and editor of Bird Beat

Photo credits:

Pileated Woodpeckers, by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, public domain

Bald Eagles, by Polinova, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0