As any good romantic comedy or steamy paperback novel will tell you, the man with the best strut, biggest biceps or fastest car doesn't always win the girl.
The same is true in the avian world, says UC Davis researcher Gail Patricelli.
To examine the role that social skills play in mating, she and her team employ a custom-built robot bird, constructed mainly of radio-controlled airplane parts, to seduce the not-so-picky male greater sage-grouse into performing its mating dance.
The fake bird, moving on model train tracks, allows the team to get a close-up view of the male's mating habits.
Bright feathers play a role in helping females decide which males will make the best mating partner, but that isn't the whole story, said Patricelli.
The goal of the research – which was presented recently at a Chicago meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science – is to move beyond a simple visual analysis and really understand the conversation of courtship, she said.
With the sage-grouse, Patricelli found that it wasn't the loudest display that won, but the male that best timed his courtship display, ramping up once he had the female's attention.
"It's about adjusting their display during courtship," she said.
The rudimentary female bird robot is equipped with recording equipment and a wireless spy camera to record the male's mating ritual, which involves strutting and puffing out his chest.
Using a model-airplane remote control, the assistant professor of evolution and ecology moved the robotic lady bird into place and then monitored how males responded to simple gestures.
Patricelli said she chose the sage-grouse in part because of the non-selective nature of the male.
"They don't seem to be bothered by the fact that she doesn't have legs and moves on train tracks," she said.
"Males try to mate as many times as possible," but it's the highly selective females that choose the most desirable mate, she said.
Patricelli said that beyond understanding more about the courtship of the North American birds, she hopes her research will help the scientific community understand why they are sliding into extinction.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service is expected to decide whether the greater sage-grouse species, Centrocercus urophasianus, should be placed on the endangered list.
Call The Bee's Ed Fletcher, (916) 321-1269.
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