|
At about 3.30 am today ABC TV re-ran one of its
nature documentaries about cooperative breeding in Australian birds. It showed
this very behaviour (along with nesting behaviour, kidnap of a fledgling chough
by another group, etc). It also showed Fairy-wrens, Sugar Gliders etc. I guess
most of you have seen it.
-----Original Message-----
From:
Ken Rogers <>
To:
<>
Date:
Wednesday, 27 February 2002 9:55
Subject: Re: [BIRDING-AUS]
White Winged Chough behaviour
Mark Kliene aked a
question (see below) about an odd White-winged Chough
behaviour and
wondered what they were doing. They were 'dusting' (also
known as
'dust bathing' and 'sand bathing'). Lots of birds do it but it
is
less well known in passerines. The following is quoted directly
from
Campbell and Lack's "Dictionary of
Birds".
"... the White-winged Chough dusts in an aberrant
manner while standing,
applying billfuls of dust to various parts of its
plumage and dealing with
the wings by movements like those used in oiling
..."
It's fun to watch, like most things these birds
do.
Ken Rogers
> Hi all,
> Yesterday
afternoon i witnessed some peculiar behaviour between two
> groups (3
and 4) of
> Choughs. They were frantically scraping pits in the earth
and was
> observed to be flicking
> from what i could ascertain,
dirt into the underwings of the primary
> feathers, or could it have
been termites or ants? it was almost a
> ritualistic exercise. Is this
a common practice, could anyone explain
> this behaviour?
>
Cheers,
>
> Mark Kliene.
>
Birding-Aus is on
the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To
unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe
birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
