User:Kab055mun/Anting (bird activity)

Week 6 (This is complete in the regular sandbox, just created a new one to have everything about this article together.

I tried to find a picture of blue jays anting but no luck in finding one without copy-write.

Edits under History section

The first scientific writings of this behavior date back to 1831. An American ornithologist named John James Audubon described wild juvenile turkeys "wallowed" in abandoned anthills. The next written reference of this occurred in 1847 when British naturalist released a manuscript called "Bird of Jamaica". In it, he describes how ants remove parasites from a tame crow, while the crow is foraging for food. In 1934 a journalist and amateur ornithologies Alexander Chrisholm published "Bird Wonders of Australia" and in it described a strange relationship bird had with ants

Lead edits

A black drongo in a typical anting posture

Anting is a self-anointing 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). The insects secrete liquids containing chemicals such as formic acid, which can act as an insecticide, miticide, fungicide, or bactericide. Alternatively, anting could make the insects edible by removing the distasteful acid, or, possibly supplement the bird's own preen oil. Instead of ants, birds can also use millipedes. More than 200 species of birds are known to ant.Most of the birds species known to ant are in the order passerines. A possibly related behaviour, self-anointing, is seen in many mammals. There are several different species of ants that birds use for this behaviour the most common being ants in the family Formicidae.

Only the information in bold was added to the lead. All other information was already in the lead.

Types of Anting

Active Anting

Anting most commonly occurs on the ground but in some species, birds practice anting on tree branches. A bird will then place the tip of its wing on the ground anting rub its bill containing an ant and rub its wing from the tip of the wing up. The tail is usually tucked between the legs and under the body, which results in the bird being unstable. Birds use one ant at a time and only rub a feather once with an ant. However, there are some cases were an ant is used more than once but never exceeds three uses. There are some exceptions to this as starlings often take a ball of ants in their bills to be used for anting. Active anting happens very quickly and can often be mistaken for regular feather maintenance. This type of anting can last anywhere from just several minutes to half an hour. Most species of birds practice active anting and do this individually or in small groups. Birds may also use 'substitutes' inactive anting. Birds have been seen to use snails, grasshoppers, amphipods and even larvae.

Passive Anting

Passive anting occurs when a bird rubs its wings and tail on an anthill.Once a bird has found an anthill it will then spread both of its wings forward at the same time. It will then sit on its tails which attracts the ants to come. Once the ants are on their wing feathers they provoke the ants by rubbing their head or beak through their feathers where the ants are. To prevent ant from crawling onto a bird's head or beak the bird will shake its head very quickly. The birds allow the ants to roam freely around its feathers. This type of anting is less common and is mostly seen in robins and Corvus Ravens .

Anting in blue jays

Anting in blue jays is a very common behaviour. It is an innate behavior that blue jays participate in. It has been found that blue jays raised in captivity and have had no exposure to anting will still participate in this behaviour when presented with ants. Blue jays' preferred ant species is C. pennsylvanicus: they will pick this species of ants over others if given an option. They use the ants by picking them up with their beaks and rub them on their feathers. Blue jays will not use an ant for more than a minute and once they have finished they will drop the ant and then consume it.

Function

A brahminy kite anting

Ridding of ectoparasites

Anting to get rid of ectoparasites is another hypothesis for anting in songbirds. This hypothesis suggests that birds use the chemical secretions that come from ants to control and rid of parasites in their feathers. Microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi can destroy a bird’s feathers if their numbers get large enough. Formic acid is commonly produced chemical by ants, and it was found to inhibit growth of feather destroying microorganisms.However there is little evidence that chemicals from ants help to ride other parasites such as feather lice and mites.

Feather grooming

The hypothesis that anting is a form of feather maintenance suggests that anting brings saliva to the bird’s feathers for use in preening. This helps to remove old preen oil and other substances.

Food preparation

The food preparation hypothesis suggests that birds rub the ant in its feathers to remove a substance on the ant. Ants produce formic acid as a defense mechanism thus, when an ant feels threated like being in the beak of a bird it will spray formic acid. It is suggested that birds then rub the ants in their feathers to remove the harmful formic acid. The bird will then ingest the ant. This can be seen in European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris. In an experiment conducted by Judson et.al., These birds were more likely to ant when the ant sprayed a high amount of formic acid and the bird had an empty stomach. This experiment proved that food preparation must be at least one of the reasons why birds participate in the behavior. Since anting is energetically costly one would expect a bird to have a full stomach when participating in this behaviour if it is not related to food preparation.

Sensory self-stimulation

Anting has been compared to human activities such as smoking and other external stimuli that serve no biological purpose and is just for self-stimulation. This hypothesis has been suggested as anting as no obvious function, it is non-adaptive, birds are said to achieve pleasure from anting and anting has characteristics of a habit. Some studies have also suggested that anting serves as a sensual or sexual function. However, there is no definitive evidence that sensory self-stimulation is the purpose of anting in birds. There have been several studies that claim to prove this hypothesis while others say just the opposite.

Functions in molt

It has been found that passerine birds molt in the summer months and interestingly the most popular time to ant the same time. These birds often focus much of the anting on their wings and tails. This is where the largest feathers emerge, and it has been suggested that anting helps stimulate the growth of these feathers during molt. Not all birds that ant do so during molt.

Species of Ants Used

Ants that spray and produce Formic Acid for defense are more often than not used for anting. Species from the subfamily Formicidae are the most commonly chosen by birds. Species from Dolichoderinae and Myrmicinae families are also used for anting however, not as common as Formicidae. If given a choice a bird will choose an ant in the family Formicidae over all other species.In total there are 24 ant species birds use for anting .

Substitutes of Ants

Some birds participate in this anting behaviour but with other organisms and even objects. Some of the organisms birds use are garlic snails , amphipods, millipedes, dermapterans, caterpillars, grasshoppers, hemipterans, mealworm larvae, and wasps . Leaves, plants and fruit juices have been used by birds for anting.