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Courtship feeding.

Live Match Score- IPL 2025 > Blog > Nature > Courtship feeding.
  • May 19, 2025
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Courtship feeding.


Courtship feeding.


During the breeding season, in most species males
present solid or regurgitated food to the
soliciting female. In species in which the females
do the courting, the roles may be reversed.
After a pair bond is formed, during the
“honeymoon period” the male feeds the
female, and soon thereafter they begin to
copulate. In the nex few days, both sexes feed
themselves, but the male also frequently feeds the
increasingly dependent female. For the few days
prior to egg laying the female is fed almost
exclusively by the male, but this activity
declines rapidly as the second and third eggs are
laid.
It is generally thought that courtship feeding
serves more than a ceremonial or pair-bonding
function — that it provides the female with
considerable nutritional benefit. In turn, the
number of eggs and total clutch weight are partly
determined by the female’s nutritional status.
It is also an important inducement to copulation.
It may serve to facilitate the formation of the
pair bond and reduce aggression between the male
and female.

Seen here are a pair of The Indian gray hornbill
(Ocyceros birostris) found on the Indian
subcontinent. It is mostly arboreal and is
commonly sighted in pairs.
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