Re: Vulture warm up

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

Quoting "Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>:

> On Thu, 7 May 2009, Amtoine Grant wrote:
> 
> > Quick thought, do any non-black[ish] birds engage in this behavior?
> > I've seen video of crows doing it to, but next to smoke/flames.
> 
> Smoke and flames? To deal with parasites?

That's the most common theory. I've seen Little Ravens here in Australia take 
advantage of 
barbeques in this way. If the wind changes direction, they change trees to stay 
in the smoke.

Corvids will also lie spread-eagled over ants' nests and let the ants crawl all 
over them. It's 
thought that either the ants actively remove parasites from the feathers, or 
they leave a liberal 
coating of antiseptic secretion on the feathers, or perhaps a combination of 
both (so that both 
parasites and micro-organisms are dealt with).

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist              http://dannsdinosaurs.dyn-o-saur.com
Melbourne, Australia             http://heretichides.game-host.org
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