Bird Board
Mountain Bluebird Alive and Well
Posted by Toe
almost 9 years ago
3 Comments
OK, it did not die. It came right back to life and flew back up to the fence, as the attached photo shows. The previous photo is real. The bird was coming down to the grass to pick insects, and on one of those attempts it just lied down with its wings spread and stayed there for about a minute. I've never seen a bird do that. I looked like it was dead, but then flew back up and kept doing what it's been doing. Really interesting behavior.
Comments
I don't know you well enough to know you were kidding. Glad the bird is okay.
I've seen similar behavior before, in both roadrunners and Carolina wrens. I think it is some type of preening activity, like dust bathing, without the dust. Just my thoughts on a really interesting behavior.
Perhaps not in this case, but birds sometimes engage in "anting" by allowing ants to crawl over them. Wikipedia offers details.
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