Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

Chaffer, N. (1932) “The Regent Bird.” Emu 32:8–11.

*Gilliard, E. T. (1969) “Australian Regent Bower Bird.” In Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds, pp. 335–44. Garden City, N.Y.: Natural History Press.

Goddard, M. T. (1947) “Bower-Painting by the Regent Bower-bird.” Emu 47:73–74.

*Lenz, N. (1994) “Mating Behavior and Sexual Competition in the Regent Bowerbird Sericulus chrysocephalus.” Emu 94:263–72.

*Marshall, A. J. (1954) “Satin Bower-bird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus (Vieillot)” and “Regent Bower-bird, Sericulus chrysocephalus (Lewin).” In Bower-birds: Their Displays and Breeding Cycles, pp. 26–71, 109–18. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

*Phillipps, R. (1905) “The Regent Bird (Sericulus melinus).” Avicultural Magazine (new series) 4:51—68, 88—96, 123—31.

Plomley, K. F. (1935) “Bower of the Regent Bower-bird.” Emu 34:199.

IDENTIFICATION: A pheasant-sized bird with brownish gray plumage, powerful legs and claws, and long, ornate tail feathers. DISTRIBUTION: Southeastern Australia. HABITAT: Rain forest, eucalyptus, other forests. STUDY AREAS: Sherbrooke Forest near Melbourne, Australia; Adelaide Zoo, South Australia.

Social Organization

Adult male Superb Lyrebirds establish territories on which they build earth mounds three to five feet wide, used as platforms for courtship displays. The mating system is polygamous or promiscuous: birds mate with multiple partners without developing long-lasting pair-bonds, and males do not contribute to raising their offspring. Adolescent Lyrebirds often associate in small groups, sometimes consisting only of males.

Description

Behavioral Expression: Male Superb Lyrebirds often court younger (adolescent) males on encountering them either in their groups or singly. The adult male closely follows the younger male, sometimes for hours at a time, periodically performing the WING-RAISING DISPLAY, in which he lifts and fans one wing toward his partner. With neck outstretched, he serenades the other male with a variety of extraordinary vocalizations, such as “whisper-song”; chortling; a call that can be rendered phonetically as clonk clonk clickety clickety click; another vocalization that sounds like the grinding of a pair of scissors; as well as uncanny imitations of other birds’ songs. Sometimes the courtship progresses to spectacular displays of the male’s elongated and stunningly beautiful tail feathers. In the dazzling FULL-FACE DISPLAY, for example, the older male arches his tail forward over his head and spreads the silvery filamentary feathers, hiding his body behind a gossamer fan framed by the elegant lyre-shaped, chestnut-striped outer tail feathers (for which the bird is named). Often the entire tail is vibrated to create a shimmering effect directed toward the other male. This may be followed by the INVITATION DISPLAY, in which the male almost “closes up” his quivering tail fan while still holding it forward (the feather tips almost touching the ground in front of him), all the while repeating a blick blick blick call. Occasionally, the younger male being courted by an adult is his own offspring. Adult males also sometimes mount adolescent males, even during the nonbreeding season when the adult bird is molting and has shed his elaborate tail plumes. Genital contact probably does not occur, though, since the younger male usually does not facilitate the interaction.

An adult male Superb Lyrebird (with molted tail feathers) mounting a younger male in Australia