Posted on 11/03/2009 2:29:28 PM PST by Daffynition
Dressing to impress
The amazing mating display of the marvellous spatuletail hummingbird has been filmed in full for the first time.
The spatuletail hummingbird is among the most rare and striking of birds.
By using a high speed camera, a BBC natural history film crew was the first to capture the mating sequence in super slow motion.
The crew also filmed a male advertising in front of a female, and solved a mystery of how the male birds make a snapping sound during the display.
The mating display of the marvellous spatuletail hummingbird (Loddigesia mirabilis) is captured for the BBC natural history series Life.
The species lives in just a few locations in Peru, and is unusual not just because of its rarity, but also because of its extreme mating behaviour.
Unusually among hummingbirds, the bird has just four tail feathers.
In males, two of these feathers grow to three or four times the bird's body length, each ending in a large violet-blue disc; the spatule.
In an amazing display, a male then advertises its quality as a mate to a female by hovering in front of her while furiously waving his spatules about.
"It's one of the most extreme displays," says Mrs Nikki Waldron, a researcher who helped film the behaviour for the programme.
"As part of his dance he'll jump backward and forwards in the air over a branch and make a snapping sound in the air."
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
At one point in the video, those two “weights” quickly come up over the top of him to form what looks like a valentine heart. It lasted but a brief second.
Amazing.
Wow!!! That was amazing. Who says there isn’t a God?
Fickle female
Is it sticking out its tongue?
National Geographic has a really cool picture of a praying mantis that snagged a hummingbird in this month’s issue.
Yeah. Saw it. Thought about posting it.
NAH!
I love hummers. I don’t think that would be a cool pic! ;~/
Fearless little suckers. The cats don’t worry them. And I love watching one or two chase away the competition from “their” feeder. It’s like watching a jet dog fight, only a lot more impressive.
so gorgeous. and to think this is the “fallen version” of creation. can’t wait to see what is in store for us in the millenium and heaven. what kind of a being makes such variation and beauty. no wonder he said it was good.
Amen. Hummingbirds are my friends. We have the Anna’s hummingbird here in SoCal. I had the privilege of a nest just outside my window during winter two years ago. I watched two nestings, the first time a solo baby and the second time two babies. It thrills me just to remember it all. They come very close to me and are unafraid.
Thank you. Simply wonderful.
Beautiful.
Yes, I’ve seen those pix. The circle of life. ;)
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