Infidelity Rocks All Families: I watched a curlew unable to brood because her mate was flirting

Like many birds, curlews tend to form monogamous relationships: the male and female taking turns in rearing their young. But last month I came across a pair on the Yorkshire moors where the male seemed to be playing away and his faithlessness seemed to be disrupting his female's ability to brood her eggs.

I first spotted the female on her nest. She seemed to be very restless and couldn’t seem to concentrate on the job of brooding. In fact it was something about her restless behaviour that meant the pair caught my eye. It was as though she just couldn’t concentrate on the job of incubating her eggs.

Curlew, art print by Robert E Fuller. Shop Now

Then I noticed that she was watching her mate closely. She seemed so agitated that she would often leave her eggs unattended and fly over to join him where he was feeding. Then one morning, after several days of this unusual behaviour, I realised what all the fuss was about. I spotted the male near my hide feeding with another female. Curlew males supposed to stand guard whilst their mates sit on their eggs but he was clearly flirting.

As I watched him, he began to posture and show off his size to the new female. His mate clearly wasn’t going to stand for this and she left her nest and flew across to join them. At this point he began to look very uncomfortable and started to strut around picking up moss and grass with his long curved beak and flicking it up into the air in a futile attempt to distract the two females. In the end, like the two wronged heroines that they were, the girls rounded on him and he quickly scarpered leaving them to battle it out amongst themselves.

Interested in how animals rear their young? Click here to read my post on 12 different wildlife parenting styles.