List of birds displaying homosexual behavior
Two New York Central Park Zoo's male chinstrap penguins, similar to those pictured, became internationally known when they coupled and later were given an egg that needed hatching and care, which they successfully did.[1]
For these birds, there is documented evidence of homosexual or transgender behavior of one or more of the following kinds: sex, courtship, affection, pair bonding, or parenting, as noted in researcher and author Bruce Bagemihl's 1999 book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity.
According to Bagemihl, animal sexual behavior takes many different forms, even within the same species and the motivations for and implications of their behaviors have yet to be fully understood. Bagemihl's research shows that homosexual behavior, not necessarily sex, has been documented in about 500 species as of 1999, ranging from primates to gut worms.[2][3] Homosexuality in animals is seen as controversial by social conservatives because it asserts the naturalness of homosexuality in humans, while others counter that it has no implications and is nonsensical to equate animal behavior to morality.[4][5] Animal preference and motivation is always inferred from behavior. Thus homosexual behavior has been given a number of terms over the years. The correct usage of the term homosexual is that an animal exhibits homosexual behavior, however this article conforms to the usage by modern research[6][7][8][9] applying the term homosexuality to all sexual behavior (copulation, genital stimulation, mating games and sexual display behavior) between animals of the same sex.
This list is part of a larger list of animals displaying homosexual behavior including mammals, insects, fish etc.
Selected images[]
Chilean flamingoes eating, drinking, and preening in St. Petersburg, Florida; flamingos (as well as penguins and other species) sometimes form committed same-sex relationships that can involve sex, traveling and living together, and raising young together.[10]
Two New York Central Park Zoo's male chinstrap penguins, similar to those pictured, became internationally known when they became a couple and were given an egg that needed hatching and care, which they successfully did.[1]
Male Guianan cock-of-the-rock, distributed in the mountainous regions of Guyana, eastern Colombia, southern Venezuela, Suriname, French Guiana and northern Amazonian Brazil, "delight in homosexuality" with almost 40 percent engaging in a form of homosexual activity and a small percentage never copulating with females.[11][12]
The black swan, Cygnus atratus is a large waterbird which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. An estimated one-quarter of all black swans pairings are homosexual and they steal nests, or form temporary threesomes with females to obtain eggs, driving away the female after she lays the eggs.[13][14]
Birds[]
- Acorn woodpecker[15]
- Adelie penguin[16]
- American flamingo[17]
- American herring gull[18]
- Anna's hummingbird[19]
- Australian shelduck[20]
- Aztec parakeet[21]
- Bengalese finch (domestic)[22]
- Bank swallow[23]
- Barn owl[24]
- Bearded vulture[25]
- Bicolored antbird[26]
- Black-billed magpie[27]
- Black-Capped Chickadee[2]
- Black-crowned night heron[28]
- Black-headed gull[29]
- Black-rumped flameback[15]
- Black stilt[30]
- Black swan[13][14]
- Black-winged stilt[30]
- Blue-backed manakin[31]
- Blue-bellied roller[32]
- Blue crowned conure[33]
- Blue tit[33]
- Blue-winged teal[34]
- Brown-headed cowbird[35]
- Budgerigar (domestic)[36]
- Buff-breasted sandpiper[37]
- Calfbird[38]
- California gull[39]
- Canada goose[40]
- Canary-winged parakeet[21]
- Caspian tern[41]
- Cattle egret[42]
- Cockatiel[citation needed]
- Common chaffinch[43]
- Chicken[44]
- Chilean flamingo[17]
- Chiloe wigeon[34]
- Chinstrap penguin[45]
- Cliff swallow[23]
- Common gull[39]
- Common murre[46]
- Common shelduck[20]
- Crane spp.[47]
- Dusky moorhen[47]
- Eastern bluebird[33]
- Egyptian goose[20]
- Elegant parrot[21]
- Emu[48]
- Eurasian oystercatcher[49]
- European jay[27]
- European shag[50]
- Galah[21]
- Gentoo penguin[16]
- Golden bishop bird[51]
- Golden plover[49]
- Gray-breasted jay[27]
- Gray-capped social weaver[52]
- Grey heron[42]
- Great cormorant[50]
- Greater bird of paradise[53]
- Greater flamingo[17]
- Greater rhea[48]
- Green cheek conure[33]
- Green sandpiper[54]
- Greenshank[55]
- Greylag goose[56]
- Griffon vulture[24]
- Guianan cock-of-the-rock[11][12]
- Guillemot[46]
- Hammerhead (also known as hammerkop)[57]
- Herring gull[18]
- Hoary-headed grebe[58]
- Hooded warbler[59]
- House sparrow[35]
- Humboldt penguin[16]
- Ivory gull[60]
- Jackdaw[27]
- Kestrel[24]
- King penguin[16]
- Kittiwake[61]
- Laughing gull[60]
- Laysan albatross[46]
- Lesser flamingo[17]
- Lesser scaup duck[20]
- Little blue heron[42]
- Little egret[42]
- Long-tailed hermit hummingbird[19]
- Lory spp.[21]
- Mallard[34]
- Masked lovebird[21]
- Mealy amazon parrot[21]
- Mew gull[39]
- Mexican jay[62]
- Musk duck[20]
- Mute swan[63]
- Ocellated antbird[26]
- Ocher-bellied flycatcher[64]
- Orange bishop bird[52]
- Orange-fronted parakeet[21]
- Ornate lorikeet[21]
- Ostrich[48]
- Peach-faced lovebird[21]
- Pied flycatcher[65]
- Pied kingfisher[32]
- Pigeon (domestic)[66]
- Powerful owl[67]
- Purple swamphen[47]
- Raggiana's bird of paradise[68]
- Raven[27]
- Razorbill[46]
- Red-backed shrike[33]
- Red bishop bird[52]
- Red-faced lovebird[21]
- Common redshank[55]
- Red-shouldered widowbird[69]
- Regent bowerbird[70]
- Ring-billed gull[39]
- Ring dove[71]
- Rock dove[71]
- Roseate tern[41]
- Rose-ringed parakeet[21]
- Ruff[37]
- Ruffed grouse[72]
- Sage grouse[72]
- San Blas jay[27]
- Sand martin[23]
- Satin bowerbird[73]
- Scarlet ibis[17]
- Scottish crossbill[43]
- Seagull[74]
- Senegal parrot[21]
- Sharp-tailed sparrow[75]
- Silver gull[18]
- Silvery grebe[58]
- Snow goose[40]
- Stitchbird[76]
- Superb lyrebird[77]
- Swallow-tailed manakin[31]
- Tasmanian native hen[47]
- Tree swallow[78]
- Trumpeter swan[79]
- Domesticated turkey[80]
- Victoria's riflebird[68]
- Wattled starling[35]
- Western gull[1]
- White-fronted amazon parrot[21]
- White stork[81]
- Wood duck[34]
- Yellow-backed lorikeet[21]
- Yellow-rumped cacique[62]
- Zebra finch (domestic)[82]
Notes[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Smith (February 7, 2004)
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999)
- ^ Harrold (1999)
- ^ Solimeo (2004)
- ^ Solimeo (2004b)
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 122-166
- ^ Roughgarden (2004) pp.13-183
- ^ Vasey (1995) pages 173-204
- ^ Sommer & Vasey (2006)
- ^ Kick (2001)
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) page 566-569
- ^ Jump up to: a b Imaginova (2007i)
- ^ Jump up to: a b Goudarzi (2006)
- ^ Jump up to: a b Imaginova (2007f)
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 644-7
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d 365 Gay.com (2005)
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Bagemihl (1999) pages 524-7
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Bagemihl (1999) pages 552-6
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 640-3
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Bagemihl (1999) pages 496-500
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Bagemihl (1999) pages 650-5
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 81 & 89
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Bagemihl (1999) pages 583-6
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Bagemihl (1999) pages 632-5
- ^ Poiani (2010) page 47
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 575-7
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Bagemihl (1999) pages 606-10
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 511-3
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 556-9
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 536-9
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 572-4
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 647-9
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Bagemihl (1999) pages 594-7
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Bagemihl (1999) pages 491-5
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Bagemihl (1999) pages 602-5
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 81
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 528-32
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 569-71
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Bagemihl (1999) pages 544-8
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 483-7
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 563-5
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Bagemihl (1999) pages 514-7
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 591-3
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 83
- ^ Smith (February 7, 2004)]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Bagemihl (1999) pages 501-5
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Bagemihl (1999) pages 518-22
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Bagemihl (1999) page 621-6
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 539-43
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 506-8
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 600
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Bagemihl (1999) pages 598-601
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 613
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 534, 535
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 533-536
- ^ Bagemihl (1999), page 479-482
- ^ Bagemihl (1999), page 522-524
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 509-10
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 587-590
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 560-562
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 548-552
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) page 232
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 487-491
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 141-142, 577-579
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 596
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 486, 663
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 634
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 611-614
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 601
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 614-616
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) page 639
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bagemihl (1999) pages 636-639
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 616
- ^ Mating Call (1979)
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 604
- ^ Poiani (2010) page 49
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 617-620
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 580-3
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) page 489
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 82, 90
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 206, 232
- ^ Bagemihl (1999) pages 81, 85, 101, 150, 156
See also[]
- Against Nature?, an exhibit at the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum that took place until 19 August 2007.
- Anthropomorphism
- Behavioral ecology is the study of the ecological and evolutionary basis for animal behavior
- Biodiversity
- Bioethics
- Biology and sexual orientation
- Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a branch of zoology; cognitive ethology fuses cognitive science and classical ethology to observe animals under more-or-less natural conditions
- Evolutionary biology
- Homosexual behavior in animals § Birds
- Innate bisexuality
- Sexual selection
Bibliography[]
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In his news book, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity ... author Bruce Bagemihl portrays an animal kingdom that embraces a whole spectrum of sexual orientations ... [and] paints a complex mosaic that resembles humanity ... At 751 pages and with photos and documentation of homosexual behaviour in more than 450 species of mammals, birds, repties, and insects, Biological Exuberance brings the dusty facts to light as Bagemihl deconstructs the all-heterosexual Noah's Ark we've been sold.
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Categories:
- Lists of animals displaying homosexual behavior
- Sexual orientation and science
- Lists of birds
- Avian sexuality