Unusual bird behaviour
Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 2:15 pm
Watched some peculiar behaviour with a chaffinch on our lawn this morning. It was huddled on the same spot for half an hour and I thought it was possibky injured so went out to check ibut and it flew off. I noticed it had been resting breast down on a small muddy patch . Half an hour later it was back on exactly the same spot again doing the same thing, . I can only wonder if it was giving itself a mud bath or whether the mud was absorbing some of it's body heat and becoming a mini hot water bottle. (Not that I think a small bird like a chaffinch would generate much body heat?). I!ve often watched sparrows giving themselves dry dust baths in summer , presumably to rid them of fleas or nits, but have never seen a bird doing it on mud.
