canberrabirds

Sunbathing birds

To: "Canberra Birds" <>
Subject: Sunbathing birds
From: "Tony Lawson" <>
Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2011 07:59:27 +1000
(NB The original article is well illustrated - best to go to that.)
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2011/08/01/sunbathing-birds/?WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_EVO_20110801


Sunbathing birds
By Darren Naish | August 1, 2011 | 2


A few weeks ago, I and the family visited Birdworld in Alice Holt Forest, Surrey (UK). We had a great time and saw a lot of neat birds. It was a scorching hot, very sunny day, and the reason I'm writing this article is because I became particularly interested in the many, many sunbathing birds I saw that day. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely familiar with the fact that birds often engage in sunbathing behaviour, and indeed I've often watched Blackbirds Turdus merula and other familiar species do it in my own garden. But I've never seen so many species, belonging to so many diverse groups, sunbathing within such a short span of time. I took photos where possible, so consider this article a brief guide to sunbathing postures in birds.

To those academically interested, note that there's a fairly extensive literature on sunbathing in birds and on the groups that practise it, on the postures they adopt, and on the function it might have (e.g., Hauser 1957, Kennedy 1969, Horsfall 1984, Simmons 1986).

For previous Tet Zoo articles on various bits of poorly known behaviour practised by birds, see.

 a.. Sleep behaviour and sleep postures
 b.. Passerine birds fight dirty, a la Velociraptor
 c.. Dead baby birds: why here, why now?
d.. Heron tries to swallow giant lamprey. Chokes. Dies. Second heron tries same trick. Also chokes. Also dies.
 e.. Clam attacks and kills oystercatcher
 f.. Using an eagle to catch and kill a wolf
 g.. Birds vs planes II
 h.. Now I know where my sparrows go to sleep
Refs - -

Blem, C. R. & Blem, L. B. 1992. Some observations of sunbathing in swallows. Journal of Field Ornithology 63, 53-56.

Curry-Lindahl, K. 1970. Spread-wing postures in Pelecaniformes and Ciconiiformes. The Auk 87, 371-372 .

Goodwin, D. 1967. Some possible functions of sun-bathing in birds. British Birds 60, 363-364.

Hauser, D. 1957. Some observations on sunbathing in birds. Wilson Bulletin 69, 78-90.

Horsfall, J. 1984. Sunbathing: is it for the birds? New Scientist 103 (1420), 28-31.

Jehl, J. R. 1985. Leucism in Eared Grebes in western North America. The Condor 87, 439-441.

Johnston, R. F. 1965. Sunbathing by birds. The Emu 64, 325-326.

Kahl, M. P. 1971. Spread-wing postures and their possible functions in the Ciconiidae. The Auk 88, 715-722.

Kilham, L. 1981. Sunbathing Vermilion-crowned flycatchers repulse mates. The Auk 98, 839.

Kennedy, R. J. 1968. The role of sunbathing in birds. British Birds 61, 320-332.

- . 1969. Sunbathing behaviour of birds. British Birds 62, 249-258

Mueller, H. C. 1972. Sunbathing in birds. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 30, 253-258.

Nicolai, J. 1962. Uber Regen-, Sonnen- und Staubbaden bei Tauben (Columbidae). Journal of Ornithology 103, 125-139.

Simmons, K. E. L. 1986. The Sunning Behaviour of Birds. Short Run Press, Ltd., Exeter (UK).

Storer, R. W., Siegfried, W. R. & Kinahan, J. 1976. Sunbathing in grebes. Living Bird 15, 45-58.

About the Author: Darren Naish is a science writer, technical editor and palaeozoologist (affiliated with the University of Portsmouth, UK). He mostly works on Cretaceous dinosaurs and pterosaurs but has an avid interest in all things tetrapod. He has been blogging at Tetrapod Zoology since 2006. Follow on Twitter @TetZoo. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American

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