Courtship is a collection of instinctive behaviors that result in mating and eventual reproduction. Courtship is important because it helps to ensure that breeding will occur. Organisms within a species must reproduce successfully in order for the species to survive. Courtship has many other functions, including mate selection, regulation of sexual readiness so that the reproductive physiology of a pair may be synchronized, the reduction of hostility between potential sex partners in territorial animals, and species recognition. Courtship may be rather simple, involving a small number of visual, chemical, or auditory stimuli, or it may be a highly complex series of acts involving several types of communication. Some of the most complex courtship behaviors are found in birds.

A male Australian great bowerbird at his bower, a brightly adorned passage or chamber designed to attract female bowerbirds.

Mating Systems

In addition to complex courtship patterns, birds also have...