Bird Communal Display Grounds - Page 2

Blue Grouse, Quail, and pheasant family have developed elaborate plumage to dazzle the females in display, as in the famous tail spread of the peacock. The many species of birds of paradise of Papua New Guinea, however, rank as the world's most extreme examples of specialized and gaudy male plumage. Some of these tropical birds have special display feathers growing from the head, back, or tail that are much longer than the rest of the bird. These feathers vary from broad plumes to narrow "wires," and have a breathtaking variety of colors. As part of the display, the feathers are erected, fanned, vibrated, or swung. The Blue Bird of Paradise even displays its splendid body and tail feathers while hanging upside down from a tree branch.

Male Buff-breasted Sandpipers display in small, clustered territories, usually along a tundra ridge or on a hillside. From these sites the flashes of their white underwings can be seen for miles, especially as the sumer midnight sun approaches the horizon during the late-night hours. The females respond to this distant advertisement, visit the lek, mate and leave again to build their nests.