Killdeer fan tailing

[ricardo00]

1.  
2. Not sure if this is the right place to post, but was watching some killdeer the other day (I had a very long lens and so wasn't close at all) and the killdeer would run, trill and do a fan tail. When I got back, I did some googling and found that some people say it is a courtship ritual (not sure if female or male does it) while others said it was to warn you not to step on them? Anyone know more about it? The courtship data goes back to posts in the 1920s by Theed Pearse and Aretas Sanders (cited by Townsend in an article in the Smithsonian). This is a link to the behavior:

    
3. https://www.flickr.com/photos/60519499@N00/52172020533/in/dateposted-public/

    

 

[lonestranger]

I watched that very same behavior just yesterday, @ricardo00. The female Killdeer was very vocal while displaying and then the male flew in and coupled with the female a few times. Killdeer will also do the broken wing routine to draw attention away from the nest but if they're displaying their breeding parts, it's probably for breeding purposes.

[ricardo00]

27 minutes ago, lonestranger said:

I watched that very same behavior just yesterday, @ricardo00. The female Killdeer was very vocal while displaying and then the male flew in and coupled with the female a few times. Killdeer will also do the broken wing routine to draw attention away from the nest but if they're displaying their breeding parts, it's probably for breeding purposes.

  Thank you!  I didn't see any copulation but there were other killdeer in the vicinity.  I didn't see any broken wing routines.

[Charlie Spencer]

Farm pond, central Lexington County, SC.  June 2022.

Edited July 9, 2022 by Charlie Spencer