Couple of possibilities. It suggests to me that maybe it saw a little animal
in the mud, that dug deeper as the threat appeared and avoided being caught.
As kookaburras don't eat poison fruit, the macaw analogy doesn't work for
me. Yes some birds will use mud when preening, as some use ants (how this
can help seems odd though). May be something in that. I have not seen
anything like this.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
Sonja Ross
Sent: Monday, 11 April, 2016 3:08 PM
To:
Subject: Interesting Kookaburra behaviour
I had an interesting experience on my walk today. A Laughing Kookaburra was
preening on fallen branches in a creek bed. It then flew down to a muddy
spot near the edge and jabbed vigorously with its bill. I thought initially
it had caught something to eat, but it didn't appear to have done so, and
certainly didn't swallow anything. Then I wondered if it was going to be
like the macaws in South America and swallow the mud to counteract poisons
in fruits they eat, but it flew back to the perch and appeared to use the
mud as it preened. It had a bath prior to one of these episodes, and was
also joined by another Kookaburra which behaved in a similar way. Has
anyone else seen this behaviour?
I've also put this on the Facebook version with photos since I can't
remember the size for this site.
Sonja
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