Sexual shenanigans versus a lovey-dovey image — bullfinch research

Flings, divorce and polygamy are all common for garden birds though the bullfinch had a better reputation than most... until now

'Goody-two-shoes' birds? Pair of male and female eurasian bullfinch, pyrrhula pyrrhula, sitting just above water level with their reflection mirrored on surface

Songbirds show scant regard for the ordinary decencies of family life. Cocks squabble with their neighbours over territory and access to females. Nor is the 'gentler sex' much better behaved. A female may have a ‘fling’ with the male next door when her mate’s back is turned; not all the chicks in a brood are necessarily fathered by the ‘pater familias’. Divorce and polygamy occur.

Sexual shenanigans are more common among garden birds than their lovey-dovey image suggests. But, of course, ‘all is fair in love and war.’