An extraordinary sight I shared with three fellow photographers off the Teller Road west of Nome in May 2011 was this mating display by a pair of Snow Buntings. The first picture shows the male separately, the next two may look like the pair is copulating, but I think it rather shows the behavior described by Birds of North America Online as follows: "Sometimes the male grabs the female’s tail ... or upper back feathers and hangs on for 20–30 s[econds]." The last two may show another display behavior described thus: "On the ground, the male walks around the female once or twice with his wings held up in a V prior to mounting female’s back." Here the male approached the female with wings up and they bumped chests. The photos of the action were taken at a distance and I underexposed them; I wish they were better, but I'm glad to have even this record of one of the more striking bits of bird behavior I've seen, performed by a pair of these spectacular and endearing birds.