He sings, and leaps, and tap dances towards her. Captivated, she demurely joins the duet and starts swaying her head to the rhythm. No, we're not talking about "High School Musical." But we just witnessed a sweet and interesting love story - between the male and female blue-capped cordon bleu.
Very much like humans, animals fall in love, and show-off to capture someone's heart. Peacocks display their vibrant tails and whales channel their inner soprano, reports BBC.
The blue-capped cordon bleu bird, a type of finch from Africa, courts more amusingly. The male bird tap dances at a very fast pace. To the human eyes, it looks like he is jumping. In between his performance, he leaps and sings. The choosy female finch keenly observes the performance. If she likes him, she responds with a responding song and dance.
The birds also move their heads to impress the opposite sex, reports The Guardian.
The courting scene was captured by scientists at Hokkaido University, who took videos of cage mates. The tap dance movements were discovered when the video was played at a slower rate.
"Like humans, males and females of cordon-bleus are mutually choosy and both sexes need to show off," research leader Masayo Soma said. "They show tap dancing throughout the courtship display, and they sometimes add songs to tap dancing."
Other footage of birds in cabaret mode captured an ecstatic routine comprised of over 200 steps done in less than a minute. Sometimes, birds hold pieces of nesting material while grooving, says Scientific Reports.
Interestingly, admirers who danced more steps were not necessarily more successful.
