Now
I am no Ornithological genius, however I do have a small knowledge of
birds. My observation of our winged friends in the last couple of weeks as brought
to my attention a question I cannot answer. You see, there is a particular cock
Blackbird living in my garden, that i have named Liberace. His music
is fabulous, in fact his dawn chorus is worth waking up at 4.30am and
listen to. Funnily enough though, he appears to be serenading a
rather butch cock (male) bird that in my opinion is bi-curious! Liberace
manages to overpower the songs of this other bird with his own beautiful
ballad. This is where my question raises its head, is he gay?
 |
| Introducing Liberace. |
Liberace
has been seen on numerous occasions stalking this other male. They have what
appear to be clandestine meetings under the wife's vw golf. In fact,
they are so engrossed with each other that when I get near to them
they don't seem particularly bothered. The bi-curious bird is always the one
that fly's away first; Liberace gives a deathly stare to me and hops
onto a nearby wall.
 |
| Singing from the rafters. |
Funny thing is that there appears to be a dearth of female blackbirds
out there. I can honestly say I have not seen a single hen bird in my
garden since Liberace took up residence. Even the real Liberace had women in
his life.
May be it's me being overly observant and reading something into a
situation that doesn't exist. Or maybe Blackbirds can be gay, and like in our
species the gay individuals are the best singers and showmen.
I think I had better open another beer and watch some rugby while I muse
over this question.
woz.
we have a pair of male blackbirds, that spend all day hopping after each other around the garden, while the other birds are busily collecting food for their babies.we put out lots of food and get many different types of birds, who bring their young to feed in front of our window. the more time I spend watching, the more interesting these little people show themselves to be. we have one male blackbird dubbed rags, as he has lost his tailfeathers, who spends all day collecting meal worms & rushing off with them. he looks skinny & harassed, while the two "lads" are fat & glossy. they may not be continuing their genetic line, but they certainly seem to be enjoying life!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. he is still knocking about, as loud and proud as ever. i youtub'd him this year
Delete.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4r9P_uEvm4
For about 3 years now we've had 2 male blackbirds that chase each other continually. They both are in beautiful condition - while the male and female blackbirds rearing a family are looking tired/shabby - feathers sticking out at all angles at this time of the year. These two male blackbirds appear to be doing a 'chase-me chase-me' routine, they scoot all over our garden both walking and flying - turn and then chase the other one. Lots of very low flying - almost dive-bombing us - there's an obvious attraction between these two and they certainly don't appear to be nest-building or having any interest in females.
ReplyDelete