Exploring Nature: Birds & Sex

Lovebirds: A mated pair of red lored parrots hang out in the trees of Belize. Unlike the red-billed buffalo weaver, red lored parrots are assumed to mate for life.
Photo by Justin Harris

Do birds enjoy sex?

It depends a lot on the species of bird. For example, the European dunnock has extremely rapid copulation — so much so that it has been timed using high-speed photography at one tenth of a second.

That’s an awfully short time to imagine any great enjoyment to be forthcoming.

Most small birds copulate for only a second or two and show no sign of any physical pleasure.

Other birds partake of sex for much longer periods, but still show no obvious sign of physical pleasure. The greater vasa parrot of Madagascar, for example, has one of the most protracted copulation of any bird — up to one and a half hours.

By the way, sex is accomplished by the male injecting sperm into the female’s cloaca. Male dunnocks produce large amounts of sperm.

There is one bird that appears to take physical pleasure in sex, the redbilled buffalo weaver, a starling-sized African bird. This may explain why the female buffalo weaver is such a promiscuous bird. She takes on all comers and displays no fidelity to any single mate.

So maybe some birds do get a positive fix from having sex. But for most, it would seem it’s not especially enjoyable.

Thank goodness they keep on having sex — it would be a sad world without the many birds we enjoy.