In order to please mates, birds sing songs and play with their feathers. But according to a video captured of blue-capped cordon-bleu songbirds by a team from Japan and Germany using high-speed video cameras, the birds perform complex, rhythmic courtship dances.

The video shows how a song bird combines dance steps and melodious tweets to woo a potential mate. Study’s researcher Masayo Soma, an ornithologist at Hokkaido University in Japan, said that these birds perform tap dance as they take very quick steps and make sounds while doing them to attract potential mate.

When one would see those steps through naked eyes then they would think that they are doing just hops and bobs. The researchers were able to know the details through the video. Dr. Soma said that when they saw the video then they came to know, “they move both feet up and down alternately, which might look more similar to the foot movements of flamenco dancers than to tap dancers”.

The researchers said that the birds dance so quickly that they perform up to six steps at one time. While the birds sing, the number of step perform reduces. For now, the researchers are not sure what attracts a mate when a bird is dancing.

Dr. Soma said though they are puzzled, there is a possibility that their quick dance is a reflection of how physically active they are. But they were might other factors as well, which needs to be find out.