One
As Anting (Engl. Anting ), a practice referred to many bird species, in which the plumage with live insects, especially with different species of ants , but also with millipedes is touched.
The biological benefits of hemming have not been fully researched, but it is assumed that the secretions secreted by insects, especially formic acid , have general plumage- caring, bactericidal and fungicidal functions. Various ectoparasites are probably also effectively combated with the corrosive liquid. The ant species used in Europe are mainly the black garden ant ( Lasius niger ), the yellow meadow ant ( Lasius flavus ) and the red wood ant ( Formica rufa ).
A skin-calming function of shedding appears less likely, which is suspected because this behavior is often observed in molting birds.
A distinction is made between two types of unification:
- Active leaning: The bird strokes through its plumage with one or more trapped, live ants. This behavior has been described for the silk arborist and the column gardener , among others .
- Passive embedding: the bird lies down on the ground with outspread wings near an anthill or an anthill so that the insects can penetrate its plumage.
literature
- Einhard Bezzel , Roland Prinzinger : Ornithology. 2nd Edition. Ulmer, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-8001-2597-8 ( UTB for science - large series ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Book of the bird world: Central Europe. P. 303, Verlag Das Beste, Stuttgart / Zurich 1994, ISBN 387070 492 6
- ↑ Clifford B. Frith, Dawn. W. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-854844-3 . P. 366
- ↑ Clifford B. Frith, Dawn. W. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-854844-3 . P. 314.