Dunnock odd behaviour?

[Cowgirl]

I was watching the birds feeding on the ground around under my feeders. I watched what I thought was a young dunnock adopting the "feed me" dance, flicking wings & begging, tail up, to an adult who was in attendance. Aaw that's nice I thought, but as I watched some more I realised that the 'youngster' was actually presenting its backside & I could quite clearly see it's 'poop hatch'. The adult was pecking at its backside as well but if it was a youngster trying to defecate, it was constipated, and if it was a female trying to attract a mate, well all I can say is you tart ! I didn't see any mating either.

Can anyone explain this behaviour?

[astarsdad]

Typical bird behaviour

[2dogs2000]

Apparently if a female dunnock has mated and another male comes along he will peck at her to encourage her to discharge the sperm from previous mating and then mate with her himself, ensuring that he fathers the chicks. Don't know where I heard or read this but I found it quite bizarre.

Just checked on the internet and it is called cloacal pecking.

[thebeard]

yep a common occurence among dunnocks, those promisicuous little blighters! I've not heard about it in anything other than dunnocks, but i'm sure it must happen!

[Cowgirl]

I'm sure I replied to this thread . Goodness knows where my reply went to. Basically it was just saying thank you & I should have renamed the thread title new behaviour to me Funnily enough beardy, I've heard of it in sparrows. Well mystery solved, dunnocks are such hussys

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by 2dogs2000

Apparently if a female dunnock has mated and another male comes along he will peck at her to encourage her to discharge the sperm from previous mating and then mate with her himself, ensuring that he fathers the chicks. Don't know where I heard or read this but I found it quite bizarre. Just checked on the internet and it is called cloacal pecking.

Dunnock

For many years a peculiar piece of Dunnock behaviour had been noted by many people – vent or cloacal pecking. One Dunnock was seen to peck under the tail of another but there was no explanation of what was happening. A few years ago Nick Davies, working in the Cambridge Botanical Garden, found out the absolutely stunning explanation for this behaviour. Dunnock breeding behaviour has evolved into an amazing melange of systems, with monogamous pairs, pairs with two males and one female and even pairs with two males and two females. Many males were trying to father chicks with females in other territories, pecking at the female cloaca to displace any sperm from a previous mating before mating themselves. Cloaca pecking was all about the cock bird trying to ensure that he was going to fertilise as many eggs as possible.

CM