I should think most everyone is at least tangentially familiar with "dust-bathing," a behavior niot uncommonly seen in farmyards, zoos, and nature documentaries about bison.
Dust bathing (also called sand bathing) is an animal behavior characterized by rolling or moving around in dust, dry earth or sand, with the likely purpose of removing parasites from fur, feathers or skin. For some animals, dust baths are necessary to maintain healthy feathers, skin, or fur, similar to bathing in water or wallowing in mud. In some mammals, dust bathing may be a way of transmitting chemical signals (or pheromones) to the ground which marks an individual's territory.
Last summer I observed a local bird (cardinal or dove IIRC) who settled down in a barren spot in the garden, wiggled into position, and then remained motionless for a prolonged period of time. It was there for at least an hour, and was absolutely still, without the scratching and wing-flapping that normally characterizes dust baths. The behavior seemed so atypical that I remember considering whether to go out to the garden to see if the bird was ill or injured, but he/she flew away without incident.
Last week I encountered this cartoon in the summer 2024 issue of Living Bird, the journal of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, that provides a logical explanation.
A friend uses bird mite / lice powder on any feathers that are collected in the wild, to kill off any mites that may be on the feathers.
ReplyDeleteI've been intrigued by anting since I first learned about it. It would be really neat if what you observed was a bird passively anting.
ReplyDeleteAfter the bird left, did you examine the location where it had been sitting, to see if there were any visible ants or colonies?
I did not, but of course at the time I didn't know what I was observing. We do have ants everywhere in our suburban back yard, but no nests in that immediate vicinity.
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