December 6 Program: Joan Thuebel presented "Dancing Birds of Costa Rica"

Joan Thuebel gave a slide show presentation on “Dancing Birds of Costa Rica” at the December 6 Kiwanis luncheon meeting. She participated in an Earthwatch scientific expedition to the western coast of Costa Rica, where she and others in her group documented the dances of Long tailed Manakin birds. The bird is unusual for its coloring, which changes as it matures over the years. David Lloyd (on right in photo) introduced the speaker.

The mating of these birds is called a “lek”. Multiple male birds do a coordinated group dance to entice females. Joan gave entertaining renditions of the dances, to the delight of everyone in the audience.

You can view a video of the Manakins dancing on YouTube. Click here to learn more about Earthwatch. At the end, the audience applauded enthusiastically and thanked Joan for the very interesting presentation.