In between searching the web and bird guides for plant and other IDs for my (long-time coming, I know!) next Costa Rica blogs, I’ve taken time for nature walks so that I can continue to see lovely wildlife and plants here in my home area. A recent discovery came up unexpectedly when I was with a couple friends looking for migrating warblers at a local lake.

Previously, I’ve written about how Northern mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) engage in wing-flashing behavior, which scientists continue to study in an effort to pinpoint its various functions. I’ve seen the wing-flashing every year since I began watching the mockingbirds, but a few days ago I saw a pair of mockers exhibiting a different type of behavior that was very interesting to watch. (If you click on a photo, you can see it larger.)

The two birds landed on a section of parking lot and proceeded to face off against one another.

They slowly drew closer.

Then they stretched to stand very erect.

They confronted each other face to face.

 A little hop by one or the other followed. A shifting from side to side ensued.

Occasionally, they flew up with flapping wings to confront one another in the air (I tried to video this but obviously don’t know yet how to take proper videos with my new camera). According to research, they might actually have an airborne physical tussle but that didn’t really happen with this pair.

So why do the mockingbirds do this? These displays are called boundary dances, where male birds go to the edge of the territory they claim to ensure that another male does not encroach on their domain.

After several confrontations, this pair eventually decided that they had made their point. It has been reported that they stop when one dominates but these males seemed evenly matched. Or perhaps they were not feeling very aggressive. Each one flew off and presumably they settled in to patrol the areas that they had claimed as their own. It was nice that there was a peaceful end to the show of masculine bravado!

Going out in nature is such a delight – you never know when you will discover something new (at least to yourself!)