Backyard and Beyond

Tis the season for copulation.Note how the male’s talons are bunched up. He can’t, after all, grab hold of her back with those sharp claws. I noticed this in an Instragramer’s photo of mating Osprey recently, where the scale was rather larger but the principle the same.
Bird mating is brief. The balancing act — flying in place essentially — and the fact that he can’t claw her are most conducive to making the process fast. Also, considering the high frequency of matings, are there a lot near misses for the requisite cloacal contact?