Fwd: Sunning Eastern Spinebill?

[steven <>]

From: steven <>

Subject: Sunning Eastern Spinebill?

Date: 23 October 2017 at 11:23:10 pm AEDT

To: "<>" <m("canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");" class="">>

Got some photos of an Eastern Spinebill (ESB) at the Australian National Botanic Gardens the other day doing weird stuff on the ground. I was standing in one spot for a couple dozen minutes waiting for Scarlet Honeyeaters, when the ESB started making weird shapes out of itself while lying in the leaf litter. It would flit into the bush every now and then, keeping an eye on things, then flit back down to the ground to continue lying in the leaf-litter. Is this simply sunning itself? Do the shapes it makes correspond to what part of its body it is sunning? And what does the bird gain from such behaviour? Does it help to maintain a higher body-temperature, thus facilitating feeding bouts? Anyway, it was interesting to watch such a small, shy bird lye out in the open, and make strange, almost Bird of Paradise shapes out of its body!

Cheers,

Steve

ESB_1.jp2
Description: ESB_1.jp2

ESB_2.jp2
Description: ESB_2.jp2

ESB_3.jp2
Description: ESB_3.jp2

ATT00001.txt
Description: ATT00001.txt