Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behaviour known as anting
1–10 of 116 posts
Re: Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behaviour known as anting
#2> [A]nting is..where birds rub insects, usually ants, on their feathers and skin.
> Some birds will sit still on an anthill and patiently allow the creatures to crawl freely through their feathers. At other times they have been seen to pick the ants up with their beaks and rub themselves with the tiny insects.
> Sensing a threat, the ants shoot a spray of formic acid from their abdomens or anal glands which gets absorbed into the bird's body and acts as a natural insecticide.
> ..A widely held theory..maintains that birds use the ants to soothe irritated skin during periods of heavy feather molting, while another theory suggests it controls parasites which live in the bird's plumage.
Re: Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behaviour known as anting
#3Bird equivalent of Jacuzzi.
Re: Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behaviour known as anting
#4Bird equivalent of Jacuzzi.
People can try anting too. Do you want to try and report back to HN with your findings?
Re: Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behaviour known as anting
#5Re: Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behaviour known as anting
#6Bird equivalent of Jacuzzi.
People can try anting too. Do you want to try and report back to HN with your findings?
I used to use "anting" to refer to the behavior of cyclists who stand on the pedals and don't sit firmly planted on their seats, as if they have ants in their pants.
And then there were "beeing" which are the cyclists who do the above while also rocking the cycle from left to right -- that's more like bees in their pants.
Re: Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behaviour known as anting
#7I live in a place where I get to
witness epic battles between a murder of crows and a colony of seagulls on a daily basis this time of the year. The seagulls are nesting on the roofs of nearby houses. The crows are trying to eat the seagull hatchlings.
It's kind of fascinating to watch. It seems like the crows are trying new strategies every new day. The much larger seagulls are wasting lots of energy in a kinda stupid way, the crows are chilling most of the time.
Re: Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behaviour known as anting
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
People can try anting too. Do you want to try and report back to HN with your findings?
Before cosmetics were available, some people stuck their face to an ants nest, I think the theory was that that could help peeling dead skin.
What kind of ants are we talking about here, because I cannot imagine anything good from doing this with a fire ant mound.
Re: Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behaviour known as anting
#9Bird equivalent of Jacuzzi.
People can try anting too. Do you want to try and report back to HN with your findings?
Here a Finnish teenager demostrates anting challenge. The video is a report itself.
Re: Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behaviour known as anting
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
People can try anting too. Do you want to try and report back to HN with your findings?
Before cosmetics were available, some people stuck their face to an ants nest, I think the theory was that that could help peeling dead skin.
This doesn't seem realistic.
Men, most who don't wear cosmetics, don't spontaneously stick their faces against ant hills. The women who don't wear cosmetics, either, don't seem to cover their faces in ants.