Rachel Nabors  💙

When folks lament that humans have stopped evolving, it makes me giggle. We lost predatory selection, but there are plenty of other drivers.

Birds of Paradise and Bowerbirds will tell you how hard they work to be chosen to sire future generations, building stages for display...

...practicing routines, stealing props from one another. These birds innovate to attract attention, to be chosen. This is sexual selection.

The females raise the chicks on their own: with so much bounty and no predators, two parents aren't necessary.

Sometimes I look at issues we're facing between sexes and think, "Are these society's growing pains as we become more like island birds?"

Angry young man: I don't understand why I can't get a girl! I'm a nice guy! Me: Sweetie, have you tried joining a lek?

(Leks are groups of performing males, much like a bird rock band performing for lady birds considering carefully which to bang.)

Leks build comraderie and brotherhood among males while they learn valuable lady-smooching skills and attract more attention with spectacle.

"Buy Rachel! Why don't these males just force themselves on the females? That works, too." Ho ho! But onlooking females bail on that fast.

Who wants to watch a performance if they'll be pressured into a deal they don't want? Women can see. They can fly. They don't show up.

Watching the experienced, respectful males is kinda wow. When the younger ones get pushy, they lose. The older ones are so patient.

My favorite clip shows one of these males rubbing his head on an utterly passionless looking female's head. Then suddenly: bird sexy times.

What's happening? Over the years he's learned how to "ask for consent" by getting this close and touching her while giving her room to exit.

Additionally, some of these birds have long wiry feathers that they will rub and flick females with. Given how birds feel through feathers..

..this makes sense: full on body contact can feel unpleasant to most birds, but light touches like these could feel like a "caress."

These behaviors look funny to humans, but they're a lot more like make out sessions when you realize what they're feeling and doing.

"But Rachel, I'm not pretty enough to be a Bird of Paradise! This system is unfair!" Glad you brought it up! Consider the Bowerbird.

Bowerbirds and BoP split from the same ancestor years ago. Bowerbirds are plainer. To make up for it, they build pavilions of tchotchkes.

Bowerbirds work to be chosen through their diligence and craft. Somewhere along the line, females started choosing males for their skillz.