Life histories of North American shore birds, Part 1 (of 2)Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Science
Life histories of North American shore birds, Part 1 (of 2)
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Birds -- Behavior; Shore birds -- North America
The courtship is brief but ardent. Whether it is the females that
woo the males, as among the phalaropes, or as normally the males
that woo the females, it is difficult to determine, for the
breeding plumages of the two sexes are quite indistinguishable. On
June 3, 1916, I observed closely the courtship of three knots high
up on one of the plateaus of Numataksuah, back of North Star Bay.
Two males (?) were evidently pursuing one female (?), she leading,
they winging rapidly in her wake, contending as they flew;
apparently all uttered the shrill piercing call to which the knots
so frequently give voice during the mating and nesting season of
early summer, and which one rarely, if ever, hears after the young
are hatched. In great circles they flew, now and then stooping to a
zigzag pirouetting and dodging, again rising in wide circles until
they disappeared from sight in the bright sky, though their shrill
calls came to earth as sharp and clear as ever.
In the ecstasy of the mating season a single bird may indulge
himself (?) in a kind of dance flight alone. He rises high above
the hills, sweeping the sky in great graceful circles not unlike
the stately flight of the sparrow hawk, so smooth and calm it
seems. From time to time he utters the shrill, clarion call of the
mating season, or the soft _coo-yee_ that is most common about the
nesting grounds. Then suddenly he drops wildly, tumbling and
tossing like a night jar at sunset, as suddenly to break his fall
and soar for miles on still, outstretched wings, not a movement
noticeable.
Mr. Manniche (1910) refers to it as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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