How do Birds have sex?

Question

has it ever been witnessed by animal experts? they dont seem to have any of the bodyparts that weve got for that kinda thing so how do they do it??

Answer 1

The Honeymoon
The Sex Lives of Birds
Mr. Bird has found his season's love, and she loves him back. What causes these birds to form these bonds in the spring and summer, not when it is cold and snowy, nor while they are migrating?

Hormones from the pituitary gland are the answer. During breeding season in response to the hormones, the male's testes become several hundred times larger than normal to produce sperm, with the left testis usually larger. The female bird's ovaries also enlarge during breeding season to produce the ovum. Female birds usually only have one functional ovary, the left one.

In birds, an ovum is fertilized in the female bird's oviduct by a sperm cell from the male bird. Once fertilized, the ovum becomes the nucleus of the egg. The egg, that has its own food source, the yolk, will be laid by the female into her nest, incubated, and then the baby bird will hatch.

But how does the sperm from the male bird get into the female? How can they have intercourse without any external male organs, such as a penis? The male's sperm, produced in the testes, passes to the cloaca where it is stored until copulation (act of sex). The female also has a cloaca that leads from the ovaries. The female bird unfans her tail, moves it to one side while the male climbs up onto her back or gets close to her. Their cloacas are pressed together and the sperm moves from the male to the female. This act is called a cloacal kiss. Click here for a diagram of the male and female bird sex (reproductive) organs.

The sperm is stored by the female for at least a week, in some species over a hundred days. Then as each ovum from the ovary moves into the oviduct, it gets fertilized with the stored sperm, producing a clutch of many eggs, all with the sperm from that one cloacal kiss.

There are a few species of birds where the males do possess a retractable penis that can be pulled back into the bird. These birds include ostriches, cassowaries, kiwis, swans, geese, and ducks. Since waterfowl sometimes make love while in the lake or pond, the penis helps ensure that the sperm is not washed away by the water.

Sperm can be transferred from male cloaca to the female in a blink of an eye - less than a second. Some birds seem to want to linger longer though, sometimes having sex for more than an hour! And, although it is not necessary to copulate frequently since the sperm is stored within the female, remember those hormones are still making the birds excited. Many pairs of birds will mate numerous times within a few days.

http://birding.about.com/library/weekly/aa071700c.htm

They have 3 pictures there as well..

The Sex Lives of Birds
Bird courtship, sex, and how they do itBoy sees girl, girl sees boy. Boy and girl meet, date, and become a pair. They may eventually go on a honeymoon and raise a family.

As it is with people, birds also go through similar steps to ultimately produce offspring. Some species of birds remain together after copulation (sex), sharing in the incubation of the eggs, feeding and raising of the young birds, as well as staying together after the breeding season. Other types of birds are briefly attracted to each other only for the purposes of fertilizing the eggs, with the female incubating and rearing her family by herself.

Click on the links below to learn how birds are attracted to one another, how birds have sex, about variations where a bird may have multiple spouses, and what happens when a bird loses it mate.

(Note: this article is intended for mature audiences. Parts may not be suitable for young children.)

http://birding.about.com/library/weekly/aa071700a.htm

Answer 2

The Greater Vasa parrot has a protruding sex organ, but otherwise, externally, the genital regions are the same. The short explanation is that, when the time to breed is right, the male and female rub together their cloacal orifices -- holes near the tail where birds can exchange sex fluids and females can pass eggs.

The rest is pretty much your usual textbook pregnancy, in a mobile (sometimes tasty) uterus, minus the long gestation you see in mammals.

Answer 3

There is a company out of Florida called Bio Tech that you can send a sampling of chest feathers to. they do a DNA test on them that reveals the sex. Another procedure is by sedating the bird and inserting a scope into their vent to view the sex organs which are internal. Some species have differences in eye colors, or certain markings.

Answer 4

WARNING! WARNING! A truthful answer to this question would require multiple violations of the Yahoo! Answers Guidelines.

Suffice it to say that beneath those fluffy little feathers, birds have the kind of equipment that would make you gasp with envy. The particulars of how they engage with this equipment could not be described without appealing to your prurient interests.

If you ever walk in on two birds doing it, you'll never be the same again. And you would not describe it to others unless you were some kind of deviant pervert.

Answer 5

Jeeze, head down to the park tomorrow. You'll see pidgeons having sex 5 minutes after you arrive.

Rampant little bastards.

Answer 6

Depends what sort of bird you mean? Sometimes there's a bill but it ain't cheep!

Answer 7

They have basically the same body parts as we do and the male mounts the female from behind. Lasts about 4 seconds.

Answer 8

very quickly.
Watch the Discovery or Animal Planet Channels.

Answer 9

is aw a duck doing it before! it was like a one inch winki lol..it just goes in, flaps around and then waddles off, if that were human, it would be rape.

Answer 10

I saw mourning doves mating on my deck... it's a piggy-back ride!