Well, most birds do things a bit differently from us humans. In most songbirds, even the equipment is different and uniquely adapted to the needs of the species. Most birds mate by a cloacal kiss. Male birds do not have a penis. Both male and female have an avian vent or cloaca. They mate by briefly touching cloacas so sperm can pass from male to female. Ducks, swans and most waterbirds do have penises and mate through penetration. First of all, most birds are made differently to mammals.
Both male and female birds have a cloaca or avian vent. This is an opening just below the tail which lets sperm, eggs, faeces and urine out. And in the case of the female, lets sperm in. As seasonal temperatures, light levels and food availability signal the start of the mating season the cloaca swells and expands.
Once breeding is done, the cloaca and other reproductive organs shrink to minimise weight for flying and migration. Bird courtship may be fascinating with brilliant plumage, beautiful songs and impressive dances.
But the sex act itself for birds is nothing to get excited about. Male birds have no penis, so there is no penetration. Birds mate with what is known as a cloacal kiss. The male mounts the female from behind, balancing on her back. She arches her back and moves her tail to one side. He hunches over, and their cloacas touch for just a second. During this brief touch, the male releases sperm which enters the female. The balancing act is tricky, and it may last a while so that the birds can have more than one cloacal kiss, increasing the chances of insemination.
So, quite a few kisses are probably needed. Once insemination has happened, the female may start producing eggs in a couple of days. Or it maybe months. She is capable of holding on to sperm within her body until the conditions are right for nesting.
Although some males will leave straight after the sex act and have nothing to do with nesting and raising chicks, most of our songbirds to nest and rear as a family. Because of the need to ensure insemination birds will mate several times, with different partners during the season.
So the eggs she lays may have several different fathers. It gets better. So, nature gave male ducks, swans and most water birds a penis.
Mating happens on the water. The male climbs on top of the female and holds her under the water briefly as he penetrates and inseminates her. If you spot birds mating, you are sure to want to stay and watch.
This is fine. They are going to be too occupied during the act to take much notice of you. And more importantly, birds often nest near where they mate. When nesting, they are very alert to potential dangers around them. If you disturb them, you may cause them to abandon a suitable nesting site.
This could mean their brood will fail. It could also mean you miss out on seeing the chicks later in the year. To make access easier for the male bird, the female may bow, crouch, hunch, or even lay on the ground, after which the male hunch or arch in order to touch his cloaca to hers.
Witnessing birds mating can be startling; however, it is important to keep distance and not disturb their actions.
In case birds are frightened or stressed while mating, the mating could be less successful as they may not complete their bond. Birds might even abandon an otherwise ideal habitat to raise their young, and without the best resources and food supplies, the chicks may have less chance of survival. Following that, eggs are incubated, and young birds hatch and begin to explore their new world. Many birds mate with members of other bird species occasionally, producing hybrid offspring.
A bird is called a hybrid when it has two different species as parents. The resulting bird can have any combination of characters from the parent species, and that can be totally identical to absolutely different. Usually, intermediate characteristics between the two species can be seen in the bird hybrid. Hybridization tends to occur between species that are closely related, and there are some groups of birds that are particularly prone to hybridization.
Several bird species hybridize with multiple other species. For example, the Mallard Anasplatyrhynchos is known to interbreed with at least 40 different species. Science offers some theories, but no complete explanation, as to why this is. Perhaps a penis is a disadvantage in flight, or that the longer coupling involved in penetrative reproduction left birds vulnerable to predators and so evolution selected it out. Males have instead a non-penetrative organ called the cloaca, which replaces the vagina in females.
Known too as a vent, this bodily cavity stores the sperm prior to mating. In both genders the cloaca is a part of the digestive tract that ejects excreta, and is also the passage through which eggs pass in the case of the female. Cloacae are to be found in sharks, reptiles, frogs, the platypus and echidna as well. If the male is able to prove his mettle by - depending on the species - building a nest, singing a serenade, displaying spectacular plumage, showing athletic prowess, cutting some fancy dance steps or resorting to bribery in the form of seeds or sparkly artefacts, the female will signal her readiness to reluctantly succumb to mating by lifting her tail in the air.
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