I have often seen Common Bronzewings (and once a Brush Bronzewing) lying on their sides with underwing and side exposed – usually aviary birds at Melbourne Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary. I’ve occasionally seen it in the wild. The Bronzewings lay still for some minutes, without wing-flicking. It was usually in a spot where a patch of sunlight struck the ground and I decided that the bird was sun-bathing – after a while it changed sides. The birds did not look as completely daft as sunbathing Starlings and Blackbirds can, but remained wary. I have also seen this attitude taken when rain was starting – in this case the bird was out in a fairly open position, and I believe it was rain-bathing. Galahs expose the underwing to rain at times too, sometimes when perched.
Anthea Fleming
On 19/09/2010 2:34 PM, Carl Clifford wrote: > Hi Stephen, > > I recently saw a similar sized group of CPs with 2 members of the group > doing similar lying on-side, briefly flicking up a wing while the rest > of the group went about its business. It was sprinkling rain at the time > and I thought the birds were just engaging in some kind of bathing > activity. Your having seen CPs doing the same when it was dry, now makes > me think perhaps otherwise. Interesting behaviour, will have to keep an > eye open for CPs doing similar and have a closer look. Hopefully I will > have my DSLR with me and will be able to take a movie of it and study > what they are doing more closely. > > Cheers, > > Carl Clifford > > > On 19/09/2010, at 1:59 PM, Stephen Ambrose wrote: > > Yesterday I saw a small flock of Crested Pigeons (about 6 birds from > memory) > in an open grassed area. One pigeon was lying on its side on the ground, > flicking one wing upwards, so that the undersurface of the wing was exposed > for about seconds with each flick. The other Crested Pigeons did not > seem to > react, continuing to forage around the displaying bird. I thought at first > that the bird lying on its side was dead or injured and that the wind was > catching the wing and blowing it upward. But as I approached the flock on > foot all the birds, including the “wing flicker” flew to a nearby tree. > > > > So I then thought I had observed some form of courtship display, but there > is no mention of this behavior in HANZAB. Has anyone else observed this > behavior in Crested Pigeons? I’m also interested to hear other peoples’ > views on the purpose of the display. > > =============================== > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au > > http://birding-aus.org > =============================== > > =============================== > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list,send the message: > unsubscribe(in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au > > http://birding-aus.org > =============================== > > ===============================
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