Sexing birds.

[Beverly]

Funny you should mention this topic, Gary.

We kept various species of finches for many years. The ones who do the singing are the males. They sing to attract females and to define their territories. Even with birds well known in our parts of the world, such as house sparrows, chickadees, robins, etc., it's the males who do most of the talking.

Plumage is also another way of distinguishing males from females. And it's the males who are the most colourful with females being dull coloured. Not all bird species can be sexed by plumage, though. For example, female and male magpies look the same.

So when I look at that photo, all I see is a male trying to attract the attention of the female for mating purposes (not unlike guys in bars trying to pick up chicks, pardon the pun), or males driving around town in their big, noisy cars showing off to the other males (and females) their status, availability and the "my car is bigger than your car" idea.