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This one comes from Bird Watchers Digest: It also talks about a bit about the bird watching myths that just won't go away.
.DoSome birds mate for life.
It sounds so sweet, doesn't it? So, well, human. The idea appeals to our sensibilities and our morality. The problem is that it has virtually nothing to do with humans or birds.
Mating for life is an ornithological shorthand that stands in contrast to those birds that change partners every year, or even several times in the same year. It does not necessarily mean what we think it does, however. Even those birds that "mate for life," like some of the larger waterfowl, are not practicing matrimony the way most of us would like to think it ought to go. It merely means that, all things being equal, these birds will stay with the same mate for an extended period. It does not preclude a variety of reproductive strategies, including what scientists like to call EPFs (extra-pair fertilization) and what most people would call a fling. The recent advances in DNA testing have shown that, almost everywhere, parentage is a more complicated and less certain fact than previously thought.
Some individuals do mate for long periods, perhaps even until one of them dies, but mating in the bird world is as varied and messy as it is for human beings.
Bird-watching myths die hard, if at all. As a philosophical wit once explained, a lie is halfway around the world before the truth gets started. The myths discussed here, and others, will never be rooted out, but you can be aware, and provide a counterpoint to many of them. Be prepared for the results. No one likes a favorite myth debunked, and wars have been fought over myths. The trick is to be rational, friendly, and non-threatening.
