Contact: Marie Guma-Diaz
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Manakin Bird Performing a Courtship Dance

Caption: Certain kinds of male birds gather into small clusters of land called leks to perform their courtship dances, and according to science, who they choose to associate with matters. A new study by University of Miami Evolutionary Biologist J. Albert Uy and his collaborators finds that some male birds are better at attracting females if they gather with close male kin, than in the company of distant relatives. The findings provide an intriguing account of why individuals help each other, especially when cooperating can be costly.

Credit: J. Albert Uy, associate professor of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami

Usage Restrictions: This video may only be used to accompany the press release “Why Birds of a Feather Lek Together”

Related news release: Why birds of a feather lek together