I came across a foraging Buff-banded Rail as I was passing through the Roma St Parklands yesterday. Whereas a Junglefowl, Scrubfowl, Turkey or Logrunner would be busily scratching away in the leaf litter, the BBR was using its bill to fossick for food in a flower bed.
This got me thinking about the nature of ground-feeding species that forage with their feet vs species that forage exclusively with their bills.
I suspect there are few examples of shorebirds that use their feet to uncover food (I’ve seen a gull paddling its feet on the water’s edge but that’s pretty much an exception). In contrast, a number of dryland birds are very dependent on their feet to uncover food. The thing about the BBR was that it was foraging with its bill in a medium that other species would use their feet to clear.
So what is it that sets the programming for ground-feeding behaviour? Some shorebird species would seem to have feet that could be used for foraging …
Regards, Laurie. ===============================
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 ===============================
In North America I have often seen the Killdeer (Charadrius viceferous) using its feet. It uses them in a manner similar to that which Vim has described for some gulls. The Killdeer appears to be ‘marching on the spot’, presumably in an attempt to disturb subsurface prey. When this action is performed on a wet, sandy surface, it tends to bring up water, which probably also brings up small food items. The literature also ascribes foot quivering to this species, but I have not observed such behaviour. Gary
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2013 4:16:31 AM
I have watched Wekas in New Zealand feeding in the intertidal. They pick up stones etc. (some quite heavy) in their bills and lay them aside, before looking what was uncovered below them. And of course Turnstones and Common Starlings do the same, albeit with slightly different techniques. Starlings gape, while turnstones usually push things aside, or roll up mats of green algae. And yes, Purple Swamphens often eat ‘out of their hands’, almost like parrots.
Wim Vader
I have watched Wekas in New Zealand feeding in the intertidal. They pick up stones etc. (some quite heavy) in their bills and lay them aside, before looking what was uncovered below them. And of course Turnstones and Common Starlings do the same, albeit with slightly different techniques. Starlings gape, while turnstones usually push things aside, or roll up mats of green algae. And yes, Purple Swamphens often eat ‘out of their hands’, almost like parrots.
Wim Vader
On land, Button-quails scrape their platelets with their feet, then peck over the cleared ground.
I recall seeing a Buff-banded Rail at the zoo foraging in a kangaroo paddock – carefully flipping over the droppings and pecking at earthworms and insects. I don’t recall that it used its feet at all. But Purple Swamp-hens use their feet a lot – I saw one last weekend pulling up grass, taking the bunch in a foot, and then eating the grass from its foot. They can chop through the rhizomes of Cumbungi (alias Bulrush) with their sharp beaks and then use a foot to yank the section of root out of the mud – a real feat (?feet) of strength. The root is then held in the foot and chewed with the beak to release starchy juices which are swallowed or fed to young birds – the fibres are discarded.
I have seen a Spotted Crake wading in shallow water – it repeatedly turned back to check if it had stirred up something edible.
Anthea Fleming
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
G’day Peter,
Very few of the BBR I have seen have been foraging in mud. BBR seem to be the least water dependent of all the rails in Australia. They seem to be quite at home in thick grasses and garden beds.
The BBR on islands that are free of surface fresh water are an interesting group. I have seen them foraging on tidal flats as well as the grassy “paddock” on the West Island of Ashmore Reef and happily poking about the rainforest resort of Green Island (east of Cairns).
Parrots have a varied diet, but many of them have the ability and inclination to use their feet when feeding.
Laurie.
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Perhaps junglefowl and the like might probe and scratch .. as my Isa Brown chook does both ?? Jude
In the case of the BBR, perhaps it spends so much time foraging in mud, where the bill works better, compared to the time it forages in litter that it’s not worth working out a better way.
If it changed methods then it would have to change habitat, and then it might not be a BBR anymore. So what’s stopping it? And what’s stopping it from learning to scratch while retaining the ability to probe? Perhaps it actually does quite well with its bill in the litter.
Are there any birds that probe and scratch?
Peter Shute
Sent from my iPad
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
That’s part of it, but there is more to it than that. A species can occupy multiple ecological niches across its range, and different species occupying the same niche can behave quite differently.
I think their ancestral history has a fair bit to do with it.
Laurie.
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Laurie,
To each their ecological niche.
Carl Clifford
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================