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From: GRRSHIPM at IDBSU.IDBSU.EDU
<llaviolette at CCSMTP.MTL.UNISYSGSG.COM>
As far as humorous lists, a guy I know has a list of all the bird
species
he's seen copulating. Not as a lewd thing, just a different list. A
difficult
one to fill, since in many species this is a "secretive" act.
Mike Shipman
GRRSHIPM at IDBSU.IDBSU.EDU
Boise ID
==============================
From: Michael Smith <whimbrel at U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Re: listing/collecting/idiocy
In-Reply-To: <9501231836.AA30753 at listserv.Arizona.EDU>
I have a few silly lists of my own:
species I've found nests of
species whose chicks I've banded
and my silliest (please don't think I'm a pervert):
species I've seen copulating.
____________________________
Mike Smith
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
whimbrel at u.washington.edu
============================
From: Kestral <cas5c at DARWIN.CLAS.VIRGINIA.EDU>
Subject: Re: listing/collecting/idiocy
In-Reply-To: <9501231851.AA29058 at listserv.Arizona.EDU>; from "Michael Smith"
at Jan 23, 95 10:51 am
If you think that's silly (perverted?), last year I met a
British birder who keeps a list of birds seen WHILE copulating!
Chris Sloan
=======================
From: MR SR PYWELL <S.R.Pywell at SCI.MONASH.EDU.AU>
Organization: Monash University
Subject: SILLY LISTS
I know a guy who lists species seen copulating whilst copulating.
This is no doubt very difficult to add to.
================
From: Annika Forsten INF <aforsten at RA.ABO.FI>
Subject: Re: listing/collecting/idiocy
In-Reply-To: <01HM7B46DD9E000QZ4 at FIPORT.FUNET.FI> from "Kestral" at Jan 23,
95 02:30:19 pm
I met a British couple who had listed 25 (I think) species while
their first-born was delivered. I think the hospital must have been
in very good area. I believe they had two woodpeckers on the list.
Finnish birders are very fond of different lists. Observatories in general
have a check-list at the out-house where you can tick off birds observed
while
sitting there. These lists are of course not personal, but for the
observatory.
They are often very long.
Many keep a list of birds observed on the First of January. Others keep lists
for all the different months. Winterlists are common as are those of species
observed in the hand.
annika forsten, finland
aforsten at aton.abo.fi
=======================
From: Steve Hampton <hampton at GORDY.UCDAVIS.EDU>
Subject: BIRDS COPULATING
While we're on the subject (from "silly lists"), I'll ask a
question my non-birding wife asked me, but I don't know the
answer to: Do birds have penises? How do they mate? Sure,
I've seen them copulating, but what's happening under the
feathers, so to speak?
As long as I've been birding, I have no idea about this.
thanks,
____________________________________________________
STEVE HAMPTON [hampton at gordy.ucdavis.edu]
Dept. of Agricultural Economics
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA 95616 USA
======================
From: Bill Principe <principe at NETCOM.COM>
Good question, Steve. I guess I'll take up the challenge and tell you
about the Birds and the Bees.
Birds have a unified opening called a cloaca. Both execretory and
genital passages open into the cloaca, and males and females are
almost identical. In all birds, the gonads are internal, up against
the dorsal wall of the abdomen.
During the breeding season, the cloacae of males of some species swell
up, forming a cloacal protuberence. This is to allow the temporary
storage of sperm and helps prevent the sperm from overheating. Not all
species have cloacal protuberences. In the California Towhee, for
example, the CP can be quite large, while some tits do not seem to develop
a CP at all. In some species, the females develop a CP as well, and
some experienced banders can sex birds by the shape of the CP, but I
sure can't.
Even though the cloaca swells, the male does not enter the female.
Instead, he usually stands on her back, and twists his tail around and
under until their cloacae touch. This is sometimes called the "cloacal
kiss," which I think is one of the more elegant terms in biology.
Probably the most interesting copulation belongs to some species of
swifts, who mount in mid air, drop through the sky together like a
pinwheel, and separate just before crashing. White-throated Swifts do
this.
In some groups of birds (ratites, ducks, storks) males have a penis,
but they are the exception. In these cases, the penis actually enters the
females cloaca. But for most birds, the cloacal kiss is the rule.
...... Bill Principe . . . . . . . . . . .
...... principe at netcom.com . . . . . . .
...... Pasadena, California .
================
From: "James D. Rising" <rising at ZOO.TORONTO.EDU>
Subject: Birds Copulating
I once saw what I thought was aerial copulation by hummingbirds
(Black-chinned, Archilochus alexandri, near Portal, Az). As anyone on
birdchat seen such a thing? Otherwise, I have never seen hummingbirds
copulate, and have no idea of how they do it. My memory of this is not
clear--we're talking mid 1950s, before most of you were born and when
Portal was still an obscure place, very hard to get to! I've seen some
spectacular, close displays of male White-necked Jacobin's (Florisuga
mellivora) toward females, but I don't think that they actually
copulated.
Name: Jim Rising
Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1
UUCP: uunet!attcan!utzoo!rising
BITNET: rising at zoo.utoronto.ca
=========================
From: John Kirby <jkirby at COMP.UARK.EDU>
Subject: Re: BIRDS COPULATING
In-Reply-To: <199501250359.VAA05063 at comp.uark.edu>
Good question. Some birds have a "phallus-like" intromittent organ
(Ducks, geese, etc), however many birds have what is known as an
ejaculatory groove which becomes apparent during arousal. In these
species, sperm are stored in receptacula (paired saccules proximal to the
cloaca) and sperm are released following an increase in tumescence
induced by filling the space surrounding these saccules with fluid
collecte dby the paracloaal bodies. In other words, some sorta-do and
most don't.
Kirby, U of Arkansas
==========================
From: Joe Morlan <jmorlan at SLIP.NET>
Subject: Re: BIRDS COPULATING
Comments: To: Bill Principe <principe at NETCOM.COM>
In-Reply-To: <9501250805.AA20782 at listserv.Arizona.EDU>
On Wed, 25 Jan 1995, Bill Principe wrote:
> Probably the most interesting copulation belongs to some species of
> swifts, who mount in mid air, drop through the sky together like a
> pinwheel, and separate just before crashing. White-throated Swifts do
> this.
Has it been confirmed that actual copulation takes place in mid-air? How
was this confirmed? I think it's useful to distinguish actual copulation
from mounting or courtship. The European Swift (Apus apus) has been
observed copulating at the nest.
Joe Morlan
Albany, CA
jmorlan at slip.net
=======================
From: Hank Burchard <burchard at TWP.COM>
Jeez, Joe, you sure know how to spoil a good yarn. In my trade, aerial
copulation would be recognized as a story just too good to check out.
+ + + + +
Hank Burchard * Weekend Section * The Washington
Post 1150 15th Street NW * Washington DC USA 20071-0001
VoiceMail (202) 334-7243 * Email: burchard at twp.com
=========================
From: Bill Principe <principe at NETCOM.COM>
Well, Joe, I have always taken that particular tale as gospel, and
frankly I have not bothered to check it out. I just looked it up in
John Terres' "Audubon Encyclopedia" and he cites Berger as saying
that some swifts copulate in mid-air. I remember Ned Johnson (Prof.
at U C Berkeley) spotting a pair of White-throated Swifts joined in
air as I described, and I have always simply believed him when he said
that they were doing it. Who knows, maybe he was putting me on?
Of course, my field trip with Dr. Johnson took place in 1974, and the
Burger text was published in 1961. Maybe we know better now.
--
............... ..... ... ... . .. . . . . .
...... Bill Principe . . . . . . . . . . .
...... principe at netcom.com . . . . . . .
...... Pasadena, California . . .
======================
From: Ronald Orenstein <ornstn at HOOKUP.NET>
Jim, the late Augusto Ruschi had this to say in Aves do Brasil, Vol. IV (the
first of two bilingual volumes on hummingbirds). It ain't much, but:
"Courting and nuptial display comprise five phases. First phase:
approach -
second phase: presentation - third phase: persecution of female bird -
fourth phase: exhibition of plumage - fifth phase: copulation.... The fifth
phase is mainly characterized by the male contact with the cloacae (2 sec.)."
Individual species accounts offer a few more details, mostly Ruschi's own
observations. For example, we read that at the end of the lengthy courtship
display of Phaethornis hispidus the male's chase eventually forces "the
female to fly to another perch until she is safe and in the end becomes
excited and turns herself over." Ah, those South Americans... the female of
P. augusti incanescens, at the end of the display, "psychologically
conquered, physically submits herself". Whew! too exciting for me...
--
Ronald I. Orenstein Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home)
International Wildlife Coalition Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116
(home)
Home: 1825 Shady Creek Court Messages: (416) 368-4661
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 3W2 Internet: ornstn at hookup.net
Office: 130 Adelaide Street W., Suite 1940 Compuserve ID: 72037,2513
Toronto, Ontario Canada M5H 3P5
==============================
From: "James D. Rising" <rising at ZOO.TORONTO.EDU>
Subject: copulating in mid-air
I've seen White-throated Swifts (Aeronautes saxatalis) do this more than
once, and I live in the east. I think Joe's point is, how do we know
that they're really copulating? I'd bet that would be hard to show. Has
anyone seen Chimney Swift (Chaeture pelagica) do this? I don't believe I
have--and I've seen millions of these!
Name: Jim Rising
Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1
UUCP: uunet!attcan!utzoo!rising
BITNET: rising at zoo.utoronto.ca
=======================