A Birds Basic Needs: What's all this stuff for, anyway?

Many birds will bring food to a potential mate, and the one that brings the best food to a potential mate is accepted and gets to reproduce. Least Terns are a good example of this. Males will go fishing out at sea and bring fish back to shore in their bills. A female will then fly up to the male and they’ll do a short courtship flight. The female will then take the fish from the male, which usually means she’s accepted him.

Many will have long flowing feathers and bright colors demonstrating that they are good at getting away from predators. If a peacock is good enough at fleeing to grow those huge feathers, he’ll probably make a good father. If a female phalarope is brightly colored enough to evade falcons, then the male knows he’s more likely to get a good mate.

Many other birds defend breeding territories. A larger territory indicates a superior fighter. The larger the territory, the more sources of food will be available for feeding young. Sometimes this means the biggest and strongest bird; sometimes this means the bird with the loudest voice. A loud voice can fool another bird into thinking you are larger than you are. You may have noticed in springtime that many birds will sit in building courtyards and their voice will echo loudly off the walls. This is an example of how some birds have learned to “cheat,” but then if a bird is smart enough to learn that echoes make them sound larger, it’s not really cheating, is it?

So, the first three basic needs – feeding, fleeing and fighting – really all lead up to the last of the needs – reproduction. And without that, there wouldn’t be any need for the feeding, fleeing or fighting.

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