The love-lives of Gwent’s Bird Population

We don’t have any actual Love Birds in Gwent, they are native to Africa. We do however have many birds with very interesting love lives, from the faithful monogamous swan to the frankly promiscuous Dunnock. Our birds also have various ways of expressing their “love” for each other and attracting a mate. Here, I will delve into our birds love lives a bit more....

It is well known that Mute Swans pair up and stay together for life. Monogamy (having just one partner), is the standard practice with most birds, at least over one breeding season, it is however much rarer over many seasons and there all sorts of other shenanigans that go on with certain species.

Whilst it is true that Mute Swans mate for life, it is also said that if one of the pair dies the other swan then remains single, this is not true, they can have a second chance at “love”. It is not perhaps all that surprising that Mute Swans remain together from year to year as they are sedentary birds, so it is easy for them to stay in touch, and if you are a huge, bright white bird it is probably quite tricky to sneak off with another!

A pair of Mute Swans

What is more amazing are birds that remain together year after year but spend large parts of the year apart. Gannets are one such bird, they spend the autumn and winter roaming widely on the open seas, not seeing their partner for months, yet they return to the breeding colony every spring and find each other in a mass of countless thousands of seemingly identical birds. After such a long time apart they reinforce their bond by taking part in rituals such as rubbing beaks and entwining necks, a bit like having a bit of a hug and a kiss!

Gannets in courtship

Birds have many ways of attracting a mate and forming a bond. The classic is singing or displaying bright feathers. It is perhaps a bit fanciful, but a nice thought nonetheless, that the Dawn Chorus is the air filled with sounds of scores of birds proclaiming their love!

Some species go further than this to show their “love”. Great Crested Grebes dance with each other and offer gifts of pondweed, just like we may dance romantically and offer a gift of flowers. Some birds such as the Arctic Tern proffer a gift of food, just as we may take someone we love out for a romantic meal. The male Wren may make many nests for the female to choose from, although sometimes he may have a number of females on the go at once in different nests and this is where things get a bit more complicated with polygamy and even more complicated arrangements!

An arctic tern giving a food gift to their mate

Let’s take a look at the slightly less conventional love lives of a few of our species:

Firstly, the ultimate in a lack of any kind of loving relationship, the Cuckoo. Basically a one night stand with both birds going their separate ways, no need to stay together with no parental responsibilities.

There are then the birds that also form no loving bond as only one parent brings up the chicks, this is relatively rare. It is more prevalent that it is the female who is left alone, although there are exceptions such as the Red Necked Phalarope, a wading bird which is a very rare breeder in Scotland and has turned up on migration here in Gwent. With the phalarope it is the male who brings up the chicks alone, and interestingly he has more subdued plumage than the female also.

Most birds form a bond, at least for the breeding season, however this can be not as straightforward as it might appear with polyandry, polygyny and polygynandry all taking place.

The Pied Flycatcher is a good example of Polygyny. These charming summer visitors, that can be found here in Gwent, including at a number of our reserves such as Strawberry Cottage Wood and Silent Valley, often practice Polygyny. This is where the male has more than one female, often continuing to retain a bond with both and helping bring up the young of both nests.

Whilst very rare Polyandry also occurs, this is where the female has more than one male. This occurs in the previously mentioned phalaropes, as when she leaves the male to bring up the chicks she often finds another male to have offspring with as well.

The most intriguing of all species, is one that outwardly looks really quite dull and is a familiar bird in most of our gardens, the humble Dunnock or Hedge Sparrow. They practice monogamy, polygyny, polyandry and polygynandry! Polygynandry being where multiple females are paired with multiple males, it might all sound a bit sordid, or you could view it as all the Dunnocks in your garden getting on great and loving each other.