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great tit sunbathing? (1 Viewer)

marnixR

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some time ago i posted about a song thrush in Wales which appeared to be sunbathing, and on my recent holiday in Corsica i saw a great tit doing something very similar : wings spread out, belly against the ground, no sign of ants (a proposed explanation for the song thrush) and no movement like in taking a dust bath

the strange thing was that this was mid afternoon with temperatures in the mid to high 30s centigrade, so you wouldn't expect a bird to need any warming up by sunning itself

so what could be the reason for this behaviour ?
 

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Over here we call it "anting" It is a self-anointing behavior during which birds rub insects, usually ants, on their feathers and skin. The bird may pick up the insects in their bill and rub them on the body, or the bird may lie in an area of high density of the insects and perform dust bathing-like movements.
 
the only problem is that after the bird had flown off, i inspected the ground where it had been resting, and i saw not a trace of any ants, hence anting appears not to be the cause of the behaviour - or would the ants appear as if on command ?
 
I've seen this behaviour in other species too Marnix, where ants can't be involved (top of a shed roof).

But they've exposed their preen gland to the sun, you can see it clearly on his rump in your picture.

Certainly some birds, though, do have ants on them, so the term "anting" seems to be a catch-all expression.
 
the only problem is that after the bird had flown off, i inspected the ground where it had been resting, and i saw not a trace of any ants, hence anting appears not to be the cause of the behaviour - or would the ants appear as if on command ?

As the BTO article says birds do this in the absence of ants - it is just sunbathing plain and simple.
 
does sunbathing make the contents of the preen gland more easy to spread on the feathers, e.g. by making the fatty substance there more liquid ?
 
This seems to happen every time a photo of a bird in this posture comes up . . . so, a general rule worth bearing in mind ;)

Sunbathing - very common

Anting - rare
 
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