A couple of weeks ago I saw some tree swallows with chicks. The young birds were sitting on perches waiting to what I thought might be some nice feeding behavior images. When the male came he seemed to have something different on his mind. I've never seen this before.
Yah, this is a tough one, mainly because there is no definitive answer (others pipe in here if they know different) and it is very species-specific. In this example, the simplest explanation, following Ocham's Razor, is that the male is following a simple rule of thumb for a male- if a bird is in your vicinity and it looks like a female, mate with her. This strategy mostly works but occasionally fails because the bird ends up mating with an immature male or female, both of which in most species look very similar, and often look more or less like an adult female.
Birds for the most part have pretty simple brains and so what works in evolutionary terms is basic, simple rules of thumb to drive behaviour.
One thing to keep in mind is that the male in the image may not be the parent but simply another male in the area who has spotted a bird which looks like a receptive female. Banding would answer this question. The more genetic work is done, the more is realised that genes are mixed up a lot more than we think. Monogamous males are mating with other females and females are doing a lot of egg-dumping in other nests.
Just found this forum, that's why my answer comes that late...
I saw this behaviour in budgeriors. When they just came out of the nest, their father tried the same.... It was just in the first one or two days and I think it might be, because the new fledged birds perch in a way that looks a bit like a female, ready for mating....
It was over after two days.
Not what I expected!
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