Nice pictures, I especially appreciate the sunbathing images. Every few days during the summer we'll get an emergency call about a dying bird around the spectacled bear enclosure, near a window. So off we'd go, looking for birds. Naturally, we never find them -- there were no dying birds, just our red-legged seriemas sunbathing again.
Do your birds do "anting"? I've watched Boyde (and other birds) have a good dust bath, then find a black ant nest and scratch at it to stir up the ants and flop down with their feathers fluffed out. After a few minutes ants are running all over the bird and it reeks of formic acid.
According to John Eastman in Birds of Forest, Yard and Thicket: "Researchers disagree about the function of anting behavior, in which the bird picks up ants and rubs them vigorously on its plumage. The traditional view is that ants' formic acid acts as an insecticide or fungicide against feather and skin parasites. Anting often occurs during periods of high humidity, lending weight to the fungicidal theory. But other investigators find no correlation between anting and parasite or fungal presence; they speculate that anting, like sunning, is simply a comfort activity, stimulating the skin, especially during summer molt. A recent theory suggests that anting forces the insects to expel their formic acid, thus making them more palatable to consume. Observed in more than 200 species of birds (mostly passerines) worldwide, anting needs more detailed observations."
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I love that stubby baby beak.
Plus, augh, whiteback! So pretty. =)
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It has to be some sort of parasite control.
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Anting
Re: Anting
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Hobbes
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