I was walking above the wash this week with Bethany and Wade, and a pair of Costa’s fluttered and spun by us at about shoulder height. It was hard to see clearly, but the male appeared to be hanging on to the back of the female with his beak. We could hear their wings striking as they flew erratically about 15 meters before reaching a creosote. At that point we lost sight of them.
I couldn’t find anything like this in the literature, but Peter Siminski at Living Desert mentioned that he sees them tumble to the ground when they copulate.
Below is a picture of a female chasing a male Costa’s from a chuparosa at Desert Willow Golf Course. We checked out the grounds on Monday, hoping to find a population of Anna’s in the area (we found lots of Anna’s on golf courses in Anza Borrego, but have had more trouble finding a good sized population around Palm Desert).
