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A black drongo in a typical anting posture. Anting is a maintenance behavior during which birds rub insects, usually ants, on their feathers and skin.The bird may pick up the insects in its bill and rub them on the body (active anting), or the bird may lie in an area of high density of the insects and perform dust bathing-like movements (passive anting).
During anting, birds rub insects on their feathers, usually ants, which secrete liquids containing chemicals such as formic acid. These can act as an insecticide, miticide, fungicide, bactericide, or to make the insects edible by removing the distasteful acid. It possibly also supplements the bird's own preen oil. Although it has been suggested ...
Birds of arid regions make use of loose soil to dust-bathe. A behaviour termed as anting in which the bird encourages ants to run through their plumage is also thought to help them reduce the ectoparasite load in feathers. Many species will spread out their wings and expose them to direct sunlight and this too is thought to help in reducing ...
Birds that follow ants eat many prey insects and thus decrease the foraging success of ants. [198] Birds indulge in a peculiar behaviour called anting that, as yet, is not fully understood. Here birds rest on ant nests, or pick and drop ants onto their wings and feathers; this may be a means to remove ectoparasites from the birds.
Anting occurs when a bird picks up a single ant or group of ants and rubs them on its feathers. The purpose of this behavior is unknown, but it is thought that the birds may be able to acquire defensive secretions from the ants possibly used for some medicinal purposes, or that it simply supplements the birds' own preen oil.
A third purpose may be to render the insects more palatable, by causing removal of distasteful compounds. More than 200 species of bird are known to ant. [21] "Passive anting" refers to when birds simply position themselves so as to allow insects to crawl through their plumage. [6] A yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) in flight.
In Arunachal Pradesh, the wreathed hornbill density is much lower in habitats where local people hunt, ranging from 2.9 to 9.02 birds/km 2 (7.5 to 23.4 birds/sq mi). [23] It travels long distances to forage for fruit, sometimes flying between islands, but it does not migrate. [6]
The antbird family Thamnophilidae used to be considered a subfamily, Thamnophilinae, within a larger family Formicariidae that included antthrushes and antpittas.Formerly, that larger family was known as the "antbird family" and the Thamnophilinae were "typical antbirds".