Hi Don, I've seen Pied Honeyeaters doing the same thing just down the
road from Yumbarra where you got the SCPs. It was also a very hot day
peaking at 48C.
Tony.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Donald Kimball
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 2:17 PM
To:
Subject: Birds and overheating - ie. how does a
scarletchested parrot deal with 46 deg
While having the joy of watching a male scarlet chested parrot almost at
my feet last week I noted a few things:
First at 46 deg Celcius even a heat tolerant neophema like the SCP can
only handle so much. At the risk of this sounding a bit like a fairy
tale I was literally standing watching honey eaters in an area I had
seen the SCP days before when I caught a flutter of colorful motion.
It was a male SCP which flew in and landed about 5 m from me. Its body
feathers were tight against its body and its wings held way out from its
body as well. It seemed to squat for a bit then skittered toward the
direction of the base of a mulga. Amazingly a 2nd male SCP flew in out
of nowhere and proceeded to battle with the first male. They made a
variety of high pitched neophema like calls and then after flying at
each other with open beaks and skittering about chasing each other a
victor was declared (I couldnt tell who won to be honest)
The victor then proceeded to a shady spot in the sand and lay there for
a minute. Then it proceeded to scratch and kick sand with its feet with
its breast sitting in the sand. Over the next few hours that I watched,
the bird gradually dug itself a deep enough pit all I could see was its
bright blue head, green back and tail. Its gorgeous scarlet chest and
the rest of the body hidden. It stayed like this for about 3 hours only
stopping occasionally to rotate its body and kick out more sand as if it
was regulating the very temperature of the sand.
When it first began all of this I thought it was dust bathing. As best
as I can determine it was acting like an overheated canine on a hot day
and trying to dig where it was cool to avoid the heat.
If anyone else has more knowledge about this behavior in neohpemas I
would be delighted to hear.
Thanks!
Don Kimball
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