Burt Guttman wrote:

"We live on Long Lake, just a few miles west of Nisqually, and one of the
pleasures of living there is the variety of ducks that swim accommodatingly
right past the house. I've been seeing courtship displays by Mallards,
Buffleheads, and others for a long time. Many of the ducks go around in
male-female pairs all winter, and I wonder just how much such displays
really reflect changes associated with longer daylength and more hormones
flowing. I have the impression that the partners in a pair are displaying
to each other outside breeding season as a way of maintaining their
pair-bonds. "Look, I still love you and I'm still a desirable, vigorous
mate. Stick with me, baby!" I haven't had a chance to read more about
this; others may know of studies relevant to the question."

Hi, Burt.

That would be nice if it were true, but in fact these ducks are courting so
intensely because they're forming their pair bonds, not maintaining them.
Thus "I still love you" doesn't describe it as well as "Give me a chance to
love you." Temperate-zone ducks don't maintain year-round pair bonds; they
form them anew each winter on the wintering grounds. They stay together in
part because they constantly display and frequently copulate. This is
pair-bond maintenance a la Homo sapiens. The pair then flies to the
female's choice of breeding grounds, copulation now results in
fertilization, she lays her eggs, he deserts her, and that's the last time
they see each other until perhaps they might meet the next winter. This
happens at a low frequency at least in some species, but most ducks don't
have the same mate the following year.

This intense competition for mates and a sex ratio skewed in favor of males
(because females suffer higher mortality) leaves many unmated males in the
spring, and this is why you see such frantic activity as spring comes on.

Because so many species are attempting to find mates during the winter while
they're in mixed flocks, this is what has selected for the brilliant
species-specific male plumages in northern ducks.

So it may be a bit less romantic but it's no less wonderful.

Dennis
--
Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115