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I went to the county park today to look for birds to photograph. After about half an hour, I noticed a pair of grackles (and not purple martins as I wrote previously) in the midst of a courtship ritual. The male, shiny and bluish purple, was placing some food into the open beak of the brown female. This is what some male birds do to convince a potential mate that they are up to the task of taking care of her and their future brood.
Male grackle feeding female in courtship ritual
This may be the same couple a few minutes later.
Grackle couple
Last week, I also saw the same behavior with our backyard cardinals. A female cardinal kept fluttering her wings while perched over a bowl of sunflower seeds that I had put out on our deck. At first I thought she was sick or in distress, as she would not eat anything. Then a red male cardinal swooped in, picked a seed and placed it in her beak. He did it twice again. I ran to get my camera, but by the time I came back the pair had flown away.
Japanese Crane Courtship Dance… 🙂
http://myvirtualplayground.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/rivers-woods-waterfalls-towns-to-cross-all-over-hokkaido/
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Thank you for the link!
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Nice…although the birds in these pics are Grackles, not Martins. 🙂
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Thank you for pointing out their correct name. I will make the corrections.
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The more I observe, the more I am convinced that other species do a fair amount of thinking and understanding, that may be clearer, certainly less cluttered, than our own. We have a resident pair of crows that groom one another in the same dead snag almost every evening, but too far way to capture well. Great photos and piece. 🙂
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Thank you John. I also see crows once in a while, but the moment I aim my camera at them they fly away cawing in protest. 🙂
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Great photos, and I always enjoy learning more about birds–thanks!
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Thank you so much! I am learning as well as I strive to take more photos of our avian friends.
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