Male birds pair up to attract female

Evolutionary biologists have stumbled across a strangely familiar form of courtship in the jungles of Costa Rica.Video footage of the tropical manakin bird has found that males employ a wingman to help them find a mate. To attract females, the pair perform an elaborate song-and-dance routine, even though only the more dominant male ever gets to mate.David McDonald at Wyoming University recorded the birds singing while going through a number of dance moves, including "side-by-side jumping", "butterflying" and "leapfrogging", in which one bird hops over the other's head before being jumped over himself.The behaviour of the long-tailed manakins, Chiroxiphia mankins, has puzzled evolutionary biologists, because it seems to hold no advantage for the lesser male in the pair.To investigate further, McDonald studied the social structure of male manakins and found that only a small percentage, representing the most dominant males, ever got to mate. With so little chance of mating...

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