Same-Sex Stork Couple Filmed Caring for Each Other's Eggs After Mating
Jupiter's Thigh.On April 17, an egg appeared in the nest. "Laying was not observed," Strnad said in a commentary accompanying the livestream.The next day, Loňská was seen laying a second egg.
Strnad said that this was quite unusual, as storks tend to lay their eggs every other day. However, it was not until the following evening that he realized what had happened."The following night, Jupiter sits on the egg at 21:23," Strnad said. "When he gets up at 9:30 p.m., there are three eggs under him!"Clearly, Jupiter was a female."From then until April 24, both females alternately laid eggs every night," Strnad said.The pair laid eight eggs in total and have since been taking turns to care for their nest. "The females should sit until mid-May, when the young are due to hatch," Strnad told a local news outlet, Deník.cz. "It will be really interesting to see if anything hatches from the eggs because storks mate on the nest, so there is a high probability that the eggs are unfertilized."Same-sex couples are fairly common in birds, with over 130 species known to engage in same-sex behavior at least occasionally. "Although this is an unusual nesting, it is not the first same-sex pair among birds," Zdeněk Vermouzek, director of the Czech Society for Ornithology, told Deník.cz. "Sometimes such couples even raise young.
It just happens without the attention of cameras."Female-female bonds are most commonly found in species that form monogamous relationships where both parents stick around to raise their young.
Most storks are serial monogamists—they do not usually mate for life but instead form monogamous pairs at the start of each breeding season—so they would fit into this category.
