Today feels like the perfect day to talk about my favorite ‘gossip bird’. To be fair, she wasn’t doing anything all that unusual for a dipper – but it sure makes for a good story!

A quick note for anyone unfamiliar: each dipper gets a unique color combination so we can identify individuals through binoculars instead of having to catch them again. Those color combos can be a bit clunky to write out, so I’ll just refer to them by the last 5 digits of their federal band number.

Last year, we banded a pair at an active nest site: female 40801 and male 40802. They successfully fledged one nestling together, but when we returned to try and catch the fledgling, 40802 and the fledgling were nowhere to be found. Instead, 40801 was working on the nest with a new, unbanded male. We caught and banded him as 40826, and that pair also fledged a nestling.

Mate switching isn’t unheard of in dippers, but here’s the twist: when we started checking dipper nests for the 2025 breeding season – guess who was back together?! That’s right, 40801 and 40802 reunited for a first nesting attempt in early April. Sadly, that nest failed shortly after hatching, but their bond must be stronger than ever because their second attempt just fledged three nestling dippers last weekend!

While it’s fun to joke about dippers and their relationship drama, observations like this can help reveal real behavioral patterns. While 40801 might be the star of this season’s soap opera, she’s not alone – three other females have also switched partners between their first and second nesting attempts this year. Mate switching between attempts is happening often enough that we can start asking bigger questions: Did something happen to the original male? Was there a hostile takeover by a new male? Or are females actively choosing to replace their mates?

I’ll be keeping a close eye on this pair – and others – as we learn more about the lives of these fascinating little water birds. Stay tuned!