----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Steve Kacir <>
To: Nikolas Haass <>
Cc: Carol Abbott <>
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 10:42:33 AM
Subject: Re: Koel
This does look very good for anting. I went to the large version of
the photo and could see at least 2 ants near the distal (farthest
from the body) edges of the tail and right wing feathers. You do
have to be careful because dust-bathing and sun-bathing behaviors can
look very similar to passive anting. In this case, though, it
appears the bird is lying on an ant mound (or perhaps a heavily used
ant route) and may have ants crawling through the body feathers that
we can't see in this photo. Looking at the photo again, I can only
find the ant by the wing now. To really confirm anting, you might
wait until the bird flies away and then check out the substrate to
see if it was an anthill or if there are small congregations of ants
left in the area.
Incidentally, Australia is the birthplace of research into Anting
Behavior, with many seminal works published in the Emu.
Thanks for the heads up on this Nikolas. Carol, I may want to use
your photo in a presentation or for a webpage at some point, would
that be OK?
--Steve Kacir
At 1:53 PM -0800 1/15/08, Nikolas Haass wrote:
>It looks like the Koel is anting. I've seen Australian Magpie doing
>that as well (and Eurasian Blackbirds, Eurasian Jays, American
>Robins, Blue Jays...)
>See my friend's Steve Kacir's presentation:
>http://www.dvoc.org/OrnithStudy/Presentations/Presentations2006/Anting_files/frame.htm
>
>Nikolas
>
>
>----------------
>Nikolas Haass
>
>Sydney, NSW
>
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: Carol Abbott <>
>To:
>Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 7:51:40 PM
>Subject: [Birding-Aus] Re: Koel
>
>HI all
>
>We have had lots of Koel's around Sydney recently, no surprises
>here. However, we have one resident present, being brought up by a
>Pied Currawong. This bird was displaying some unusual behaviour,
>sitting on the ground, fanning out it's feathers as if suntanning.
>It was in full sunlight, on very warm ground.
>We have seen this type of behaviour from Brown Cuckoo Doves before,
>but never from a Koel.
>The link to the photo is m("N03","//www.flickr.com/photos/22817918");">http:
>Any thoughts as to why the bird behaves this way?
>Regards
>Carol Abbott
>==============================www.birding-aus.org
>birding-aus.blogspot.com
>
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