Around Valentine’s Day I think of love songs. And among the most romantic expressions of love can be found in the song “All I ask of you” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical "The Phantom of the Opera."
"Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime;
Love me, that's all I ask of you."
Raoul and Christine were quite the love birds. But are real birds “love birds?” Does true love last a lifetime in birds?
Apparently — and this is debated — most animal behaviorists believe that birds do not feel what we might consider romantic attraction, happiness in a union or joy and pride in rearing a family.
Currently, ornithologists refer to a “pair bond” rather than relationships. A pair bond forms during courtship, but it appears that the single motivation is to produce healthy chicks. That said, birds of different species remain in a pair bond for different lengths of time.
Some birds do stay together for years, while others (wrens come to mind) change partners while they still have chicks from their first mating in the nest.
But most birds maintain their pair bond as least while they have a brood in the nest. Some pairs nurture two or three broods in a single season. A few species maintain pair bonds for several seasons.
Now that we have DNA testing, and while the human term “cheating” is inappropriate, researchers have learned that a surprising number of songbirds are involved in extra-pair paternity, which means that in one brood, not all of the siblings have the same father.
Don’t judge. This has survival value.
So, while some pair bonding behaviors appear to be oh-so-very-romantic, few species really share one love, one lifetime. Swans, however, usually do mate for a lifetime, though the swans in the ballet “Swan Lake” seems to encounter a few complications with true love and fidelity.
