Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Tweeters - Anting behavior in birds
Date: Feb 15 13:17:07 2010
From: Jim Greaves - lbviman at blackfoot.net


I've observed Northern flickers "anting". Otherwise, I watched a pair
of Least Bell's vireo at a nest at the Fillmore Fish Hatchery in
early 2000's "anting", as they tried to keep ahead of the Argentine
ants that had invaded a nest about to fledge; one chick jumped the
nest and was "consumed", but the others survived, only AFTER I'd
sprayed the ground and base of shrub with ant poison to stop the
invasion. Net result: 3 of the 4 nestlings survived to leave the
nest, relatively unharmed. Any who don't like the idea of what I did
are entitled to their opinions. No one else was there to help "each
member" of this endangered species survive that day [recall the
mantra of the Condor Recovery Team] - Jim Greaves, Thompson Falls MT

At 01:00 PM 2/15/2010, tweeters-request at mailman2.u.washington.edu wrote:
>Message: 9
>Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:47:04 -0800 (PST)
>From: Gary Wiles <wilesharkey at yahoo.com>
>Subject: [Tweeters] RFI: Observations of anting behavior in birds
>To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Message-ID: <386117.3680.qm at web112604.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>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