Fun birding vocab additions (including Anting!) courtesy of @rosemarymosco
Birdword is a recurring feature in Living Bird magazine. Subscribe now. They're sometimes called technical terms, eight-dollar-words, jargon, or just plain gobbledygook. But hidden inside those multisyllabic ornithological utterances are keys to fascinating behaviors, time machines to take you ba
I have to share my #anting story...
We were #birding at the #Audubon #CorkscrewSwamp in S #Florida. Most of the hike is on a boardwalk so you are up high looking down at #birds on the ground when not over water. We see a #CommonYellowthroat #Warbler on the ground attacking a group of ants. It was odd because he didn't look like he was eating them, just tossing them around like he was mad at them.
Many years later I was reading "The Birder's Handbook" (which has an interesting format, one bird description on each right-hand page, and a more general bird-related essay on the left). I got to the essay on "Anting" and remembered that little bird and the ants! Not mad, not hungry... He just needed a little bug repellent!
Note that elsewhere on a sister site there is an article that seems to contradict all of the above... ?!
https://feederwatch.org/blog/anting-blue-jays-taking-a-bath-or-preparing-dinner/
Thanks to student blogger, Lauren Smith, for this entertaining post about why Blue Jays engage in “anting.” Imagine that you are an ant. Bright sunlight streams down, warming the white pavement stretched before you. You peer out from between cool green stalks and wave your antennae, sensing for any dangerous chemicals wafting your way. Tasting […]
@Raccoon @VoiceofDuum @rosemarymosco
It's a nice place. If I remember correctly... there is a #WoodStork rookery at the very end of the boardwalk. Also the first place I ever saw a #PaintedBunting... 🙂 It was on the bird feeder near the visitors center and people were just walking by like that was "normal"... 😉
Cromley
Richard Rathe
Raccoon🇺🇸🏳️🌈