Hi Tweeters,

During the Olympia Christmas bird count, Kelly McAllister and I came across a flock of starlings performing "anting" behavior at an active ant mound. Anting involves birds picking up and rubbing ants through their plumage, or standing over ants and allowing them to crawl into their plumage. Formic acid from the ants may provide some benefit to the birds, such as feather maintenance or control of ectoparasites, or the birds may simply be trying to rid the ants of formic acid before eating them. It's a widespread but apparently uncommon behavior among birds in eastern North America and other parts of the world. Kelly and I have been working on a short article documenting our observation. Interestingly, our background reading suggests that anting has't been previously reported in the Pacific Northwest. We therefore want to ask readers of Tweeters if they could contact me (wilesharkey at yahoo.com) with any personal observations of anting behavior that
they may have for Washington, Oregon, or BC. This may give us a better feel for how common this behavior is in the region. We're interested in knowing the bird species and number of individuals involved, location, month or season of the year, and other details you may recall. Thanks!

Gary Wiles
Olympia
wilesharkey at yahoo.com