Photo Arne Ader
Translation Liis
Mew gulls before mating
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The mating of birds is an intricate process and it may quite often fail too.
The reasons can differ because birds must read each other’s wishes in the eyes or conclude them from behaviour. So a lack of understanding may occur between the sexes and in some cases a female who is irritated by the behaviour of her mate may even become aggressive. In some species the male tries to attain consent for the mating by bringing gifts but as we all have noticed, the birds don’t touch each other before the moments of actual copulation. This may in the opinion of scientists be the reason why birds must mate several times in order to fertilize one egg.
The majority of male birds lack an organ like the penis. At the mating the male jumps, but sometimes also descends from flight, on to the back of the female. If she for instance pulls her tail towards right the male, while holding his balance with open wings, can turn the rear of his body from the left to under the tail of the female.
Birds sppread and flatten the feathers surrounding their rectum, or cloaca, and press them tightly against those of each other. The ejaculatory ducts of the male that are located in the upper part of the cloaca thus will be positioned directlly on the reproductive organs of the female. In female birds generally only the left-hand oviduct or fallopian tube has developed but a chamber has developed which can hold the seminal fluid of the male. The copulation looks like a brief massaging movement which may last a second or two.
Some of the larger birds that live in Estonia, such as the crane, have a rudimentary organ resembling a penis and geese have even diffuse signs of a clitoris. The arrangement of the reproductive organs of aquatic birds probably even allows them to mate in water
