Most beautiful mating displays you have seen

What animal mating displays have you seen?

I regularly see tailorbirds flash their black throats when calling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUk3QcBt-28


Historically I believe I have seen the peacock mating display, but not anytime recently.


I believe this year I have seen the Yellow-billed Babbler mating display (where they like fan their wings, and turn side to side calling loudly)

I’m actually unsure as to whether it is a mating display at all, but I chose to include it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iREHqdDZYng

2 Likes

I have seen this mating display in Bandipur Tiger Reserve
its quite unique that many dont get a chance to see this in front of ur eyes

1 Like

There is another mating act that I have seen and taken a pic - Common Grass yellow Butterflies mating

2 Likes

I meant the displays; rituals, dances, (eg. Peacock, Bulbul, Albatross, Jumping Spider) that stuff.
:)

1 Like

And I forgot to mention I have seen Plexippus petersi mating dances.

1 Like

A few years back I got to see a bit of the mating antics of the Gray Crowned Crane. The birds are already pretty spectacular, and when you add in the jumping and dancing they do it’s pretty amazing.

My photos of it were kind of rushed and not as good as I’d like because our guide was trying to race us across the valley to see a rhinoceros that was literally just a dark speck in the distance, but the observation is linked above.

2 Likes

A couple of Sternula superciliaris on the right bank of the Tapajós River, a tributary of the Amazon River.


among other observations
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?iconic_taxa=Birds,Insecta&place_id=any&q=Mating&user_id=nelson_wisnik&verifiable=any

3 Likes

It is pretty much a cliché, but the mating display of the male peafowl is really amazing.

3 Likes

ever seen the mating display of a snake,

1 Like

https://youtu.be/d4Be3TAjmGM
https://youtu.be/_eohxZBhKKE

Perhaps not beautiful, but impressive….These are displays I used to see very frequently over my patio. A male hummingbird makes a powerful parabolic dive and thwacks his tail to make a big noise for the female who sits back and enjoys the aerobatics.

6 Likes

The coolest ones I’ve seen would be Greater Prairie-Chicken and Whooping Crane.

2 Likes

not wild, but the courting of my peacock gudgeon pair (Tateurndina ocellicauda) is always fun to watch

1 Like

I think it’s the red-eyed grebe where the courting pair does a coordinately dance where they have to synch to one another’s movements? I thought it was beautiful, and also posed questions in terms of the brain mechanisms that allowed them to synch their movements so.

2 Likes

Oh, so they are displaying in a snipe style!

1 Like

I thought this White-capped Redstart was so pretty! I had no idea they could show so much ‘red’ and get the tail feathers so high! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/97523287

3 Likes

:wink: Well, mostly she just sits looking available and watches the fellers knock themselves out.

1 Like

That’s what birds regulary do!.)

2 Likes

The first that came to my mind was from white wagtails, males are doing everything they can, even sing which is unusual to hear from wagtails, all puff up and make circles around female similar to how pegions do, but on one side.

6 Likes

Is there a project about mating? Or just a list of mating scenes? I love these couple of Toxomerus flies… https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20951223

1 Like

There’s this project, which is now global: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/mating-behaviour

For people in and around South Africa, there’s also https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/mating-pair-s-afr

4 Likes