Miłość w piórka obrośnięta. Miłość w świecie zwierząt / Bartosz Popczyński

Lecture by Bartosz Popczyński from the Love in the Animal World series, part of the Encounters with Nature series [June 16, 2026] Are birds romantic? Is their song truly a "love song," or rather a precise message: I am strong, I have good territory, choose me? In the next lecture in the "Love in the Animal World" series, Bartosz Popczyński discusses the love, courtship, singing, courtship, and reproductive strategies of birds. It's a much more complex world than we might think when we hear the bird concert outside our window in the morning. We associate birds with beautiful colors and song, but the speaker shows that this is only part of the story. Rooks, starlings, and pigeons may seem unspectacular to us, but other birds see them completely differently—including in ultraviolet light. What appears black, gray, or inconspicuous to the human eye can be a colorful signal of fitness and attractiveness to a bird's partner. The lecture also features bird calls: nightingales, corncrakes, warblers, warblers, and robins. Song can serve to attract a mate, defend territory, and demonstrate perseverance, strength, and fitness. Interestingly, birds can also differ in their "dialects"—individuals of the same species from different regions don't always sing exactly the same. Bartosz Popczyński also discusses spectacular courtship displays and bird shows: peacocks that vibrate their tails, capercaillies that perform characteristic vocal sequences, pheasants, flamingos, and swans. These are not only beautiful spectacles but also biological tests: tail symmetry, color intensity, plumage quality, dancing, and song can all indicate a male's health, strength, and fitness. In this lecture, we will learn, among other things: why birds see themselves differently than we do, what role ultraviolet light plays in bird courtship, why birds sing and why some can do so for hours, what courtship is and why it can be so spectacular, why the capercaillie momentarily "goes deaf" during its mating song, what copulation looks like in birds and what the so-called "cloacal kiss" is, which birds have a copulatory organ, why females pay attention to the symmetry, colors, and condition of males, where flamingos' pink coloration comes from, whether swans are truly a symbol of fidelity, the unusual reproductive strategies of aquatic warblers. This lecture is about birds, but also about evolution, sexual selection, communication, and the biology of behavior. "Love" in the animal world rarely resembles human notions of romance—it is more often a confluence of signals, rivalry, strategy, instinct, and the struggle to pass on genes to the next generation. Bartosz Popczyński's lecture, "Love Covered in Feathers. Love in the Animal World," was delivered as part of the "Encounters with Nature" series on June 16, 2026. Bartosz Popczyński is a forester, nature educator, and science popularizer. He is an educator at the Center for Nature and Forest Education of Urban Forests in Warsaw. For years, he has been giving lectures for Wszechnica on nature, ecology, and fascinating animal behavior. Watch the entire "Love in the Animal World" series:    • Miłość w świecie zwierząt - Bartosz Popczy...   We also recommend other lectures by Bartosz Popczyński from the "Encounters with Nature" series:    • Spotkania z przyrodą - Bartosz Popczyński   #LoveInTheAnimalWorld #EncountersWithNature #BartoszPopczyński #birds #ornithology #birdcourtship #birdsong #courtingbirds #capercaillie #peacock #flamingos #swans #aquaticwarbler #corncrake #nightingale #animalbehavior #reproduction #sexselection #nature #ecology #natureeducation #WarsawUrbanForests #Wszechnica #WszechnicaFWW #science #popularscience If you would like to support Wszechnica in continuing to create content and organize further #Wszechnicaconversations, you can: 1. Become a Patron of Wszechnica FWW at https://patronite.pl/wszechnicafww 2. You can support us by shopping at Fanimani.pl - https://tiny.pl/d9wz-p96 3. You can make a donation for our statutory purposes via traditional bank transfer. Donations for the Rural Development Foundation can be made to account number: 33 1600 1462 1808 7033 4000 0001 Rural Development Foundation Find us:    / wszechnicafww     / wszechnicafww1   https://anchor.fm/wszechnicaorgpl---h... https://anchor.fm/wszechnica-fww-nauka https://wszechnica.org.pl/