[Birdtalk] Barn Swallow story on utahbirds.org

[Ryan O'Donnell]

I just noticed the photo story of a pair of barn swallows that was
recently posted to the Feature Pages section of Utahbirds.org.
(http://www.utahbirds.org/featarts/2009/SwallowStory.htm)  The page
shows a healthy swallow accompanying a moribund and then dead second
swallow that had been hit by a car.  The page in question mentions that
the bird's behavior is "probably much more common in the avian world
than we would like to think."  I agree, but I suspect whoever started
spreading these photos misinterpreted the behavior as mourning.  The
healthy swallow was apparently trying to mate with the injured, and
later dead, swallow.  Male barn swallows will attempt to mate with dead
swallows (Samuel 1971).  This behavior has also been shown in ducks
(Moeliker 2001), and perhaps other bird species as well.
 
Happy Valentine's Day,
-Ryan
 
Ryan P. O'Donnell
Department of Biology and the Ecology Center
Utah State University
5305 Old Main Hill
Logan, UT 84322-5305
 
Moeliker, C W. 2001. The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the
mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae). Deinsea 8:243-247.
 
Samuel, D E. 1971. Field methods for determining the sex of barn
swallows (Hirundo rustica). Ohio Journal of Science 71(2):125-128