07-Mar Love in the Air

In gardens, female robins may still be accepting food from the male. Crows, rooks, herons, pigeons and some finches do the same. Crows have a habit of nervously twitching near females. Hedge sparrows pursue the female, stop and then shiver in front of her. Wrens do much the same, but sing loudly as they go about it. Older blackbirds, with their bright yellow bills, are still chasing off younger suitors with duller bills. A female blackbird responds to overtures by running in front of the male and raising her head and tail seductively. This often encourages the male to just burst into song. Pigeons can be seen caressing each other, whereas sparrows prefer to chase females, flashing their black cravats and white wing bars. Woodpeckers also have a charming display which involves much peeping around tree trucks interspersed with loud drumming. Even parakeets fly lower than normal to show off their pea-green feathers and call far more softly than usual and grey wagtails just fan their tail feathers. Many ordinary actions of birds are now exaggerated to catch the female’s attention and, at the same time, they catch ours.

Our park lakes and reservoirs are still the best places to watch birds courting because of the wide range of behaviour patterns particularly in waterfowl. Shelduck raise their heads vertically and make a long, whistling call as they bring their head down and forward, opening their beak as they do so. They also draw their beaks across their wing quills to produce another enticing sound.

Head throwing is common in pochards and goldeneye, the latter adding additional kicks and splashings. Ruddy ducks more unusually produce bubbles on the surface of the water by expelling air from their feathers with their heads. Many birds pretend to preen themselves, whilst making sure they flash their courting colours as they do so.

When it comes to sheer flamboyance little beats the mandarin duck. The male’s plumage includes violet, blue, emerald, chestnut, orange, yellow and red as well as black and white bars. These are all shown off to much advantage on an extended helmet, crest, cheek plumes and wing fan. They are secretive birds and he often courts her in dim light where all he needs to do is raise his extraordinary sail feather to get her attention. If this doesn’t work he is not above whistling. Because of their dazzling colours these birds have appeared in Chinese and Japanese art for over two thousand years. Hence it is little surprise they were imported from that region by English aristocrats to enhance their private wildfowl collections. Some inevitably escaped and formed small discreet populations such as the one on Virginia Water. There they can still be seen today and on occasion flocks of up to seventy or more.

Teal seem to concertina their whole body whilst raising their head and tail simultaneously. Heronries are always good places to watch displays. Males stretch their wings out and raise their necks vertically. They then make stabbing actions towards the female as well as several curtseys. This is accompanied by a range of different calls as well as waving erect head feathers. She acknowledges his display by merely stretching a little and then settling down on her nest. A large heronry can be seen at Walthamstow Reservoirs.

It is also worth making an effort to see any early raptor displays. One of the most impressive are congregations of possibly up to twenty buzzards. These are rare but much more common are sparrowhawk displays. To see these it is necessary to get up early on a sunny morning and visit one of our larger parks or wooded commons. Usually so secretive, both male and female repeatedly soar and spiral together perhaps up to sixty metres above the canopy. They then either dive down or circle around making slow, deliberate wingbeats. This is often seen directly above where they intend to nest which is likely to be a tall conifer below them. Up to ten different raptors have been recorded drifting over London in March so it may be worth looking for the occasional solitary osprey, red kite, harrier or even honey buzzard among the planes. Best of all is to watch out for peregrine falcons courting which can occasionally be seen beside the Houses of Parliament.