birding-aus

Spotted Quail-thrush behaviour

To: "Colin Driscoll" <>, <>
Subject: Spotted Quail-thrush behaviour
From: Carol Probets <>
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 15:02:04 +1000
Colin,

A good suggestion, but the birds I was watching appeared to swallow whatever it was they picked up. I certainly didn't see them rubbing it onto themselves. However that's not to say they don't do it at other times.

Cheers

Carol


At 2:53 PM +1000 15/6/04, Colin Driscoll wrote:
Carol, I wonder if the Quail Thrush were using ants as insecticide (for
lice). I've seen Noisy Miners picking up ants and rubbing them under their
wings and on their backs as a form of insecticide- the formic acid or
similar I guess- that ants exude when agitated. We think we're smart with
our inseticide spays and the birds have been doing it for many thousands of
years. I've also seen the Superb Fairy-wren doing the same thing with meat
ants- darting onto the mound and grabbing one.

Cheers

Colin
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to 


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU