Courtship is the action birds engage in order to attract a mate. A classic example is the male hummingbird, which will fly back and forth like a pendulum in midair in order to impress a female. Courtship comes in a variety of ways, but is often spectacular and is one of the rarely-seen highlights of many species' behavior.
a ritualized behavioral pattern prior to mating: functions to stimulate and synchronize the readiness to mate
The way two animals attract each other to mate.
Activities performed prior to actual breeding. Hummingbirds, the male displays a noisy, aerobatic courtship flight that demonstrates his overall health to a prospective female.
behavior that goes on prior to mating
An early stage in the breeding cycle, beginning with the male and female birds of a given species coming together, and ultimately leading to pair formation and copulation. In the Purple Martin, courtship begins when a male gives his advertising display to a prospective female. The male martin flies up in the air, dives to the house (or gourd), enters his compartment, turns and sings out of the entrance hole while simultaneously gaping to show his pink mouth lining. During early courtship, female martins choose the very best male/compartment combination they can. The "quality" of the compartment(s) a male is able to claim and defend from other males is an indicator to the female of his "quality" as a resource provider.
Behavior designed to attract another animal or bird as a mate.
a behavior pattern that leads to mating
behavior for birds includes singing, strutting, booming and posturing.
a formal process of interaction, between male and female adolescents with the express intent of leading to marriage. It involves parental approval and is characterized by the adolescent couple spending time with both sets of parents. Alternative to contemporary dating.
when male and female eagles attract each other for mating
performed in some form by all spiders in order to ensure that male and female recognize each other and mate; females show species-typical response. Web-building spiders: courtship consists of pulling the threads of the female's web, trembling abdomen. Hunting spiders: pedipalps and front legs drumming on ground. Jumping spiders and wolf spiders: visual signals such as waving of front legs and pedipalps. In general, courtship proceeds to touching female's legs and finally mounting female to insert part of genital bulb for sperm transfer into female epigynum.