Visit the Galapagos Island of Española in April and you may experience firsthand one of the most interesting and elaborate courtship rituals in the entire animal kingdom.

Each spring, tens of thousands of waved albatrosses—nearly the entire worldwide population—return to Española to find mates and breed. During this time, they are the largest birds in the Galapagos, averaging 3 feet in length with a wingspan of 8 feet.

> Galapagos Wildlife Guide: Waved Albatross

Waved albatrosses mate for life, a relationship that is resolidified each year through an elaborate and sometimes comical dance that can last up to five days. The spectacle includes a precise series of movements such as stumbling, bowing, honking, rapid-fire beak fencing and exaggerated head swaying. This is all punctuated by an occasional “any-a-annhh” sound.

A pair that is coupling for the first time or one that failed to breed during the previous season will engage in an even longer and more involved ritual!

Check out the video below of two waved albatrosses engaging in this courtship dance:

After the Dance

When the dance is finally complete most pairs will mate and produce a single egg, which the male and female will take turns incubating. Once the egg hatches, both birds will participate in the care and feeding of the nestling. Around January, nestlings leave the island and roam the seas for about five years before returning to Española to find lifelong mates of their own.

Witness winged albatrosses, blue-footed boobies, Galapagos penguins, Darwin’s finches and myriad more birds and other wildlife on our Galapagos Discovery adventure!

> Learn about World Wildlife Fund’s Conservation Efforts in the Galapagos Islands