Birds express affection through various behaviors such as allopreening, sharing food, and protecting each other. Allopreening involves grooming each other with their bills, emphasizing their bond. Mated birds often preen, share food, and exhibit protective behaviors, showcasing a strong connection.
In captivity, bonded birds may feed each other by regurgitating food, reinforcing their emotional ties. Additionally, some species exchange gifts like moss or sticks as tokens of affection. These actions collectively signify the depth of emotional connections in avian relationships.
Animals have different ways of showing love to each other and so do birds. If you find two birds preening each other’s feathers, then it is just a way of expressing love.
Let’s get to know about the different ways a bird shows affection to each other.
9 Different Ways of Showing Affection to Each Other Among Birds
There are different ways of communicating their affection, love, and care among birds. Some use physical display while others vocalize. So, here we have listed the most common ways – how birds express their love for each other.
1. Building Nest
Nesting is a way of showing fondness towards each other. The birds show love and care by protecting the eggs and young ones in the nest. A well-built nest also attracts a mate and creates a safe space from harsh weather, environmental factors, and predators. Home has always been a symbol of love and by building nests birds show love and affection towards each other.
2. Giving Gifts
It might be surprising for you, but birds too give gifts to show affection and love. Birds are known to be generous creatures and when a bird is gifting something to another bird, it implies that they want their friend to be happy. It has also been seen that when a bird receives any special treat, it is willing to share it with its flock.
3. Singing
Birds are known for their singing skills and they express their love, contentment, and affection through singing. The songs sung by birds have different purposes, such as – communicating, attracting mates, etc. Some birds also sing territorial songs, which are sung when the bird returns home with food for the young offspring and mate. It is a way of showing care. Some birds, such as male barn swallows sing an advertising song and it indicates that he is back home at his nest and after looking for a female mate. Usually, the males have a soothing and pleasing singing skill when compared to the female birds.
4. Preening
Preening is a very common way of showing affection where you can see one bird taking care of the other. During this activity, you might see birds brushing off debris from another bird, brushing their feathers, and cleaning the dirt around the nostrils and beaks of other birds. One bird also helps to trim away dead skin from the other bird, usually near the ear, eye, feet, and bill. They also help one another to trim away dead skin from the wings, wingtips, and legs.
5. Feed Each other
You can also see birds collecting food for the female mate during the incubation or breeding period. The activity of taking care of each other and providing food to the partner is a way of showing affection, love, and care.
6. Bill Circling
You might find two birds circling each other’s bill and it is a way of mutual preening. If one bird gets injured or sick, the other one takes care of it and accompanies it until the bird recovers, this is a sign of affection. This behavior is observed mostly after mating or courtship. Often the bill circling is also a gesture of greeting each other. It is also thought to be a gesture of dominance over the other bird.
7. Mutual Preening
In mutual preening, the bird is seen to clean each other’s feathers. This is seen as a grooming behavior where one bird sits on top of the other and removes dirt from the feather. This gesture is counted as a sign of trust and affection. You can see birds preening right after migration, encountering a fight, or hunting prey. There are many ways of cleaning the feathers, either they use their beak to pluck unwanted debris and other elements from the feather or use their feet by placing them on the part where they see extra dust and dirt stuck on the plumage of the other bird. Just like combing, through the process of cooing tones along with rubbing the dirt and grime from the body of the bird.
8. Perching Together
Birds are affectionate creatures and by perching together they show a lot of care for each other. Usually, a pair of birds or a family of birds is seen to perch together. This allows them to interact with each other without the necessity of being on the same level. either they are seen to perch next to each other or diagonally or across each other. This pattern varies based on how close or how tall they are. You can also see birds perching while feeding their kids or grooming their siblings.
9. Bill Contcating and allopreening
When the birds touch their bills together, this activity is known as bill contacting. If they lick each other’s beak then this activity is known as allopreening and these are all ways of showing affection.
How Bonded Birds Show Affection Towards Each Other?
Bonded birds show affection towards each other by feeding each other, or through regurgitating food. Now, this activity consists of bobbing the head up and down and bringing up the food from the crop, and this food is deposited into the mouth of the mate. This affection is also seen between parents feeding baby chicks.
