Male Birds
Use Wingman To Attract Female
Evolutionary biologists have stumbled across a strangely familiar
form of courtship in the jungles of Costa Rica.
Video footage of the tropical manakin bird has found that males
employ a wingman to help them find a mate. To attract females, the
pair perform an elaborate song-and-dance routine, even though only
the more dominant male ever gets to mate.
David McDonald at Wyoming University recorded the birds singing
while going through a number of dance moves, including "side-by-side
jumping", "butterflying" and "leapfrogging", in which one bird hops
over the other's head before being jumped over himself.
The behaviour of the long-tailed manakins, Chiroxiphia mankins, has
puzzled evolutionary biologists, because it seems to hold no
advantage for the lesser male in the pair.
To investigate further, McDonald studied the social structure of
male manakins and found that only a small percentage, representing
the most dominant males, ever got to mate. With so little chance of
mating themselves, young male manakins are forced to play a
supporting role to the alpha males.
McDonald said the less dominant males reap their reward for being a
good dance partner later in life. By putting on impressive courtship
displays in their youth, encouraged females to return to the same
site to look for mates in the future. Within five years, the younger
males had risen up the social order and had a wingman of their own.
The dance routines attracted females who usually mated with the
alpha male within hours or days of watching them dance.
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