List of birds displaying homosexual behavior

Two New York Central Park Zoo's male chinstrap penguins, similar to those pictured, became internationally known when they coupled and later were given an egg that needed hatching and care, which they successfully did.

This list includes birds for which there is documented evidence of homosexual or transgender behavior of one or more of the following kinds: sex, courtship, affection, pair bonding, or parenting, as noted in researcher and author Bruce Bagemihl's 1999 book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity.

Bagemihl writes that the presence of same-sex sexual behavior was not 'officially' observed on a large scale until the 1990s due to possible observer bias caused by social attitudes towards LGBT people making the homosexual theme taboo. Bagemihl devotes three chapters; Two Hundred Years at Looking at Homosexual Wildlife, Explaining (Away) Animal Homosexuality and Not For Breeding Only in his 1999 book Biological Exuberance to the "documentation of systematic prejudices" where he notes "the present ignorance of biology lies precisely in its single-minded attempt to find reproductive (or other) "explanations" for homosexuality, transgender, and non-procreative and alternative heterosexualities. Petter Bøckman, academic adviser for the Against Nature? exhibit stated "[M]any researchers have described homosexuality as something altogether different from sex. They must realise that animals can have sex with who they will, when they will and without consideration to a researcher's ethical principles". Homosexual behavior is found amongst social birds and mammals, particularly the sea mammals and the primates. Animal sexual behavior takes many different forms, even within the same species and the motivations for and implications of their behaviors have yet to be fully understood. Bagemihl's research shows that homosexual behavior, not necessarily sex, has been observed in close to 1500 species, ranging from primates to gut worms, and is well documented for 500 of them. Homosexuality in animals is seen as controversial by social conservatives because it asserts the naturalness of homosexuality in humans, while others counter that it has no implications and is nonsensical to equate animal behavior to morality. Animal preference and motivation is always inferred from behavior. Thus homosexual behavior has been given a number of terms over the years. The correct usage of the term homosexual is that an animal exhibits homosexual behavior, however this article conforms to the usage by modern research applying the term homosexuality to all sexual behavior (copulation, genital stimulation, mating games and sexual display behavior) between animals of the same sex.

Template:Dynamic list

This list is part of a larger list of animals displaying homosexual behavior including mammals, insects, fish etc.

See also: List of mammals displaying homosexual behavior

Selected images

Chilean flamingoes eating, drinking, and preening in St. Petersburg, Florida; flamingos (as well as penguins and other species) sometimes form committed same-sex relationships that can involve sex, traveling and living together, and raising young together.

Two New York Central Park Zoo's male chinstrap penguins, similar to those pictured, became internationally known when they became a couple and were given an egg that needed hatching and care, which they successfully did.

Male Guianan Cock-of-the-rock, distributed in the mountainous regions of Guyana, eastern Colombia, southern Venezuela, Suriname, French Guiana and northern Amazonian Brazil, "delight in homosexuality" with almost 40 percent engaging in a form of homosexual activity and a small percentage never copulating with females.

The Black Swan, Cygnus atratus is a large waterbird which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. An estimated one-quarter of all black swans pairings are homosexual and they steal nests, or form temporary threesomes with females to obtain eggs, driving away the female after she lays the eggs.

Birds

Acorn Woodpecker Adelie Penguin American Flamingo American Herring Gull Anna's Hummingbird Australian Shelduck Aztec Parakeet Bengalese Finch (Domestic) Bank Swallow Barn Owl Bicolored Antbird Black-billed Magpie Black-crowned Night Heron Black-headed Gull Black-rumped Flameback Black Stilt Black Swan Black-winged Stilt Blue-backed Manakin Blue-bellied Roller Blue Tit Blue-winged Teal Brown-headed Cowbird Budgerigar (Domestic) Buff-breasted Sandpiper Calfbird California Gull Canada Goose Canary-winged Parakeet Caspian Tern Cattle Egret Chaffinch Chicken (Domestic) Chilean Flamingo Chiloe Wigeon Chinstrap penguin Cliff Swallow Common Gull Common Murre Common Shelduck Crane spp. Dusky Moorhen Eastern Bluebird Egyptian Goose Elegant Parrot Emu Eurasian Oystercatcher European Jay European Shag

Galah Gentoo Penguin Golden Bishop Bird Golden Plover Gray-breasted Jay Gray-capped Social Weaver Gray Heron Great Cormorant Greater Bird of Paradise Greater Flamingo Greater Rhea Green Sandpiper Greenshank Greylag Goose Griffon Vulture Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock Guillemot Hammerhead (also known as Hammerkop) Herring Gull Hoary-headed Grebe Hooded Warbler House Sparrow Humboldt Penguin Ivory Gull Jackdaw Kestrel King Penguin Kittiwake Laughing Gull Laysan Albatross Lesser Flamingo Lesser Scaup Duck Little Blue Heron Little Egret Long-tailed Hermit Hummingbird Lory spp. Mallard Masked Lovebird Mealy Amazon Parrot Mew Gull Mexican Jay Musk Duck Mute Swan Ocellated Antbird Ocher-bellied Flycatcher Orange Bishop Bird Orange-fronted Parakeet Ornate Lorikeet Ostrich

Peach-faced Lovebird Pied Flycatcher Pied Kingfisher Pigeon (Domestic) Powerful Owl Purple Swamphen Raggiana's Bird of Paradise Raven Razorbill Red-backed Shrike Red Bishop Bird Red-faced Lovebird Redshank Red-shouldered Widowbird Regent Bowerbird Ring-billed Gull Ring Dove Rock Dove Roseate Tern Rose-ringed Parakeet Ruff Ruffed Grouse Sage Grouse San Blas Jay Sand Martin Satin Bowerbird Scarlet Ibis Scottish Crossbill Senegal Parrot Sharp-tailed Sparrow Silver Gull Silvery Grebe Snow Goose Steller's Sea Eagle Superb Lyrebird Swallow-tailed Manakin Tasmanian Native Hen Tree Swallow Trumpeter Swan Turkey (Domestic) Victoria's Riflebird Wattled Starling Western Gull White-fronted Amazon Parrot White Stork Wood Duck Yellow-backed Lorikeet Yellow-rumped Cacique Zebra Finch (Domestic)

See also

• Against Nature?, an exhibit at the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum that took place until 19 August 2007.
• Anthropomorphism
• Behavioral ecology is the study of the ecological and evolutionary basis for animal behavior
• Biodiversity
• Bioethics
• Biology and sexual orientation
• Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a branch of zoology; cognitive ethology fuses cognitive science and classical ethology to observe animals under more-or-less natural conditions
• Evolutionary biology
• Feral child
• Innate bisexuality
• Sexual selection

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