Female-Female Spring Fling in American Kestrels: An Observation of a Female–Female Pair and Copulation Behavior

Abstract

Same-sex copulations by raptors, and birds in general, have been rarely reported. In American Kestrels (Falco sparverius), there have been no previous reports of a female copulating with a female. Here, we summarize our observations of a pair of female kestrels that were documented to copulate repeatedly with each other over a 5-wk period in north Texas. Two females were first observed together on 17 March 2020, when they copulated 23 times. That same day, we trapped and marked both females with coded anodized color bands. Between 17 March and 20 April 2020, we observed the pair copulate an average of 9.2 times/hr (7 d of observation, 7.9 hr), with both kestrels being present during 74.9% of our observations. The kestrels alternated which bird was in the top position during copulations, with the female with band code E/17 on top during 55.8% of copulations (n = 45) and female E/20 on top during 44.2%. One or both kestrels vocalized during 75.6% of copulations. We recorded other behaviors typical of breeding kestrels, including nest-site inspection, territorial defense, and an apparent aerial courtship display. Contrary to published speculations on same-sex pairs in birds, our observations do not support the hypothesis that the females typically adopt separate sex-specific behavioral roles. We propose probable benefits of a female-female pairing may include (1) stimulating ovulation, (2) sharing incubation and provisioning duties that could result in a greater number of young fledged, and (3) the ability to more easily defend and hold territory by two females, which typically hold higher-quality territories than males in American Kestrels.

The Full Annual Cycle of the American Kestrel: State of the Knowledge, Information Gaps, and Conservation Needs

“…Other shorter contributions in this issue document a series of previous unreported natural history observations. Heather Bullock and coauthors (2023) detailed an interesting observation of a female-female kestrel pairing and mating in Texas. They describe and quantify observations of this pair of marked females repeatedly mating and switching positions for a period of almost 4 wk.…”