Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
7/29/24 4:05 p.m.

You know how some animals will take dust or mud baths?

Some birds do that, too, just with ants.

The behavior is called "anting," and, according to Wikipedia, there are two different types of anting:

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).

1988RedT2
1988RedT2 MegaDork
7/29/24 4:13 p.m.

I know my chickens will eat the heck out of ants.  So maybe that's like "internal anting?"

Jerry
Jerry PowerDork
7/30/24 8:27 a.m.

SWMBO has two parrots and volunteers at a local bird farm and rescue, have to see if she's heard of anting.

slantvaliant (Forum Supporter)
slantvaliant (Forum Supporter) UltraDork
7/30/24 8:33 a.m.

Has Gary Larson heard of this?

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