I spend a lot of time,and by a lot I mean sometimes over 2 hours in the evening observing my birds. I happen to have 2 show-offs that if they see me and I talk to them,or say anything they come towards the fence where I'm at and "open up". Roadtrip (BSSP) and Majik (Midnight B/S) both do this like clockwork for me.It seems to get their trains to open up and stand up,the males first seems to lean forward then they use muscles to pull up their feathers.It seems if they shake it helps to unfurl them.They are layered and from what I can count there is no less than 3,but more than likely 5 seperate layers of tail feathers.You can see them easily if the male opens up facing left or right being directly in front of you. It also interesting when the males pull their trains back inwards and slowly walk away with their train partially opened but in a horizontal position. Then it's easy to see this layered affect too. They seem to ruffle their tail feathers much like a rattlesnake makes his tail shake and make noise. If you listen close these vibrations,or muscle contractions varies in speed changing the frequency of their sound. At times the sound seems in slow motion when a hen is rather far away but as she gets closer he makes them vibrate quite fast. When he attempts to breed a hen he pulls his neck back and the ruffling stops as he makes a diffrent vocal squak and his tail drops almost to horizontal.
