Birds Fall in Love Too, Speed Dating Experiment Shows

Birds and humans are often remarkably similar when it comes to mate choice and falling in love, finds a new study that suggests nature maybe have a romantic side after all.



Successful relationships among birds, as well as humans, are not just about the strongest, fittest and best-looking among us, but instead rely upon pairings based on compatibility and attraction to others.

Malika Ihle of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and colleagues wrote that “zebra finches choose mates on the basis of behavioral compatibility” and can’t stand being in a relationship that is “forced,” a/la an arranged marriage between a man and a woman.

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For the study, Ihle and co-authors Bart Kempenaers and Wolfgang Forstmeier set up a speed-dating session for the little birds, allowing 20 females to choose freely between 20 males.

When the birds paired off, half were allowed “to go off into a life of wedded bliss,” the researchers said in a press release, while the other half experienced an intervention. Like overbearing Victorian parents, the scientists split up this second group of happy couples, and forcibly paired them with other “broken-hearted individuals.”

Bird couples, whether satisfied or somewhat disgruntled, were then left to breed in aviaries. The authors monitored what happened next.