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Ruffled, ready and unrivalled: The dandy gents of the bird world

No two ruffs wear the same outfit. It may be because the birds don’t call and this individual fancy dressing is one way the reeves can identify them.

A ruff in Hodal in Haryana (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

They say exceptions prove the rule, and the ruff – a medium sized sandpiper-like shorebird or wader – dressed for the most part in the usual streaky browns, blacks, greys and white – prove to be a sterling example. Like many male birds they change into more glamorous attire during the breeding season, which alas we in India don’t really get to appreciate because they breed in the vast swamplands and marshes in Eurasia and Northern Russia – in territorial units called leks. These patches of bare ground are occupied by breeding males – each carving out a one square meter of private territory, where they display and wait for the ladies to arrive and take note. There may be five to 20 leks in each ‘stamping ground’. They are abundant birds and migrate to warm southern regions in vast numbers during winter.

Also, till a while back, this species was the only one where the male and female had different names: the males were called ruffs, the females, reeve. Normally in nature, where there is sexual dimorphism, the gents put on their best, each trying to outdo the other in order to catch the eye of the girls. Thus, a peacock with a slightly more magnificent cloak than its rival may be able to garner more meaningful looks and make out with more ladies than its lesser endowed rival. Always, it is the ladies that decide but the difference in the gents’ outfits (or for that matter, song and dance if that’s what the lady demands) is kind of marginal. Not so with ruffs.

These fellows look like they have emerged from the court of Louis the IV – wearing magnificent ruffs and ruffles around their heads, necks and throats, complete with elaborate ear tufts. The colours of this powder puff feathering are astonishing: purple, blue, russet, white, grey, wine red, yellow and white, with red bare skin around the throat. What makes them unique, however, is that out of the perhaps 10,000 species of birds in the world, they are the only ones in which each male dresses completely differently from the other.

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No two gents will wear the same outfit as another. Till now, no one knows why this is so, though it is thought it may be because the birds don’t call (a muffled ‘gou-gou’ is the best they can manage), and this individual fancy dressing is one way the ladies can identify them. To add to this is the fact that there are three distinct types of males: territorial males, comprising around 84 per cent of the population, satellite males (around 16 per cent) and those which completely mimic the ladies – around 1 per cent. The territorial males take charge of their small territories and here, will posture and fluff themselves up for the ladies and let rivals (and the ladies) know how talented they are. The satellite males – property-less and distinguished by their white or mottled heads, hang around at the edges of the lek, hoping for a look in. Satellite and territorial males may even ‘display’ to one another, the latter tolerating the former because even the ‘whiteheads’ attract (and may make out) with the ladies and the more ladies there are around, the better their chances to score.

The lady-mimics, called faeders, skulk around the lek, hoping to sneak in and get a bit of action, once the territorial and satellite males get distracted or are done and do manage to get a bit of the action.

Ironically, these wimps have the bigger gonads than those of the ruffed males! Frankly there is a hell of a lot of hanky-panky going on. And always, it is the ladies that call the shots. They check out the leks, and when one lady decides she likes a particular gent, she will mate with him, regardless of whether he is the fittest or has the most elaborate plumage or not. If she likes him, that’s it. Then all her girlfriends too, will want to make out with the same lucky fellow and hasten over. And no, neither she nor he may be faithful to each other, though 90 per cent of the gents are faithful to their leks. (If it’s brought them luck then it’s obviously a lucky lek) and will return to it season after season.

Scientists have done elaborate and extensive research into the genetic make-up of faeders and satellite males and appear to have figured out how they came about to be so different from the standard issue. Surprisingly, they found that the ‘lafda’ was not caused by a gene linked to the sex chromosomes of the bird as they expected but a more non-sex one.

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I’ve watched ruff (and reeve) at the Sultanpur National Park in winter. They had gathered around the lake as thick as clotted mud and flew around in great sweeping waves, flickering brown and white. One year, in perhaps early March, the entire lake bed seemed to be moving sideways as if moved by a giant subterranean hand, and there was this slightly malevolent grunting emerging from the lake bed. Then I realised that some of the birds had begun to change into their breeding attire – with rich brown and russet curls and swirls – and had probably begun rehearsing for their actual performance.

While scientists may have figured out the reasons behind the differences between the territorial and faeder males, they still haven’t figured out how each gentleman ruff, dresses completely differently from his rival. With us, when gentlemen turn up in identical suits, no one blinks. But if two ladies turn up in identical outfits, you can be sure that there will be hell to chew.