During courtship, birds perform rituals that ease aggression and help establish a bond between two birds prior to mating. Courtship behavior is instinctive, and each species goes about it in its own unique way. In many birds, males play the dominant role in attracting and courting a mate. Courtship rituals may include songs, visual displays, nest-building, food presentations, or mutual preening.

Courtship usually occurs in the spring when food is plentiful. Most birds are monogamous, having only one mate per breeding season. Depending on the species, the bond between the pair may last for only one year or a whole lifetime, as in swans.

Some birds are polygamous and take more than one mate in a season. Usually the members of the pair do not remain together after mating.

Often a female tends her eggs and raises the young alone. Usually these females are camouflaged while the males are colorful. In a few species, including phalaropes, painted snipes, and rheas, the males incubate the eggs and take care of the young. Phalarope plumage colors are reversed from the usual pattern, males are drably colored and females are brightly colored.

Sage Grouse gather in large groups at traditional breeding grounds called leks where the males display communally to attract a female. In the early morning, the males meet on an arena and strut around with their feathers erect and air sacs on their chests inflated. The females select a male from the group, mate with him, and they fly off to nest and rear the young alone.

Many birds perform elaborate courtship dances. Cranes are the most accomplished dancers in the bird world and their courtship dances include bowing, jumping up and down, and flapping their wings.