Data and video from: The mating ritual of a rainforest tinamou, Tinamus major

The mating systems of many rainforest birds remain poorly understood,
especially those that elude observation in dense forest understories. Here
we documented mating behaviors in a pair of Great Tinamous, Tinamus major
(Tinamidae), a secretive species with a wide distribution across the
lowland Central and South American tropics. Despite anecdotal
preconceptions that males court females, we observed predominant courtship
displays from the putative female tinamou. In this mating ritual recorded
in the birds’ natural habitat, only the putative female vocalized in the
form of clucking and soft-rolling songs, and courted the putative male
with a suite of courtship displays, such as neck-elongation, tail-raising,
crouching, and feather-fluffing. In contrast, the putative male watched
while standing still, approached, tail-raised, walked away, and mounted
the putative female a few times. The clucking song of the putative female
had not been described previously but we repeatedly observed this song
type immediately before the soft-rolling songs during the courtship
interaction. Clucking was of lower frequency and around ten times shorter
than the soft-rolling songs. The clucking and soft-rolling songs sung by
the putative female were of lower frequency than the common morning
territorial songs recorded in the vicinity. This behavioral auditory
analysis of the mysterious mating ritual of rainforest tinamous reveals
the previous underappreciated female bias in avian courtship displays.
This observation raises the appreciation of the diversity of sex roles and
mating systems.