Hummingbird Breeding Behavior

Hummingbirds have complicated courting rituals that can include dancing, diving, showing off feathers and singing. Often, it's up to the male to attract the female and up to the female to decide if she'll mate with him. After mating, the male will often mate with other females. The female builds a nest and cares for the young until they are ready to be on their own. The male hummingbird has no part in raising the young.

  1. Mating Dance

    • When a male hummingbird is ready to mate he lets the females within his territory know this by puffing out his chest and throat. He will move his head quickly from side to side in order for his feathers to flash in the sunlight. Many hummingbird species, including Allen's hummingbird, perform a mating dance to attract females. The male approaches a female and flies back and forth in front of her. Females have even been known to perform a similar dance to attract males, though this is not as common.

    Courtship Dive

    • Like a mating dance, a courtship dive is performed by a male hummingbird to show a female that he is ready to mate. The male will fly approximately 60 feet into the air and then dive down toward the ground. As he dives, he will make whistling, popping and buzzing noises with his throat. Just before he reaches the ground, he'll fly back up and perform the act again. Generally, a male does this about three or four times in front of a female. This act serves to attract females but also to deter other males that may want to enter the bird's territory.

    Female Behavior

    • While the male performs, the female hummingbird sits quietly on a branch and watches his maneuvers. She decides if she wants to mate with him. When a female accepts a male, she perches on a tree branch and spreads her feathers. After mating is over, the female often drives the male away by pecking at him.

    Mating

    • The hummingbird mating act lasts approximately four seconds. Male hummingbirds do not have an external penis and therefore there is no penetration during the act. Instead, the two birds press their cloacas together so that the male's sperm can move into the female's body. The cloaca is the area where hummingbirds excrete solid and liquid waste, and it also serves as the opening to their internal reproductive organs.