Courtship dance of Red Rumped Swallows


After our Muthodi trip we spent a couple of days at Sakleshpur where we went around birding both mornings and evening. I happened to notice this behaviour of the Red Rumped Swallows which were doing flying acrobatics with each other which I can only assume to be their Courtship Dance. They would sit on the electric wire couple of feet apart. Then move towards each other in short movements. Nuzzle each other and then both would fly high and do some acrobatic moves. Eventually one would settle down and watch the other continue this show. Then it would also sit down, move closer, nuzzle and repeat it all over again. This went on for about 5 minutes. Then they just flew away, interestingly in opposite directions!

No confirmation as yet from experts in this area on whether this is a courtship dance. If you are one please do leave a comment! :)

All good images that I captured are on Picasa in the same sequence that I shot them at: