Anting ….
A jay lands on the rotting trunk where ants are busy.
Initially the guess is that it has arrived to feed, but it then hops over to where there’s greater ant activity and it allows the ants to run over and between its feathers.
Red ant nest
This is called ‘anting’ and is behaviour recorded in many bird species.
It is believed to be a strategy used by birds to control skin parasites and feather mites. The ants spray their formic acid into the feathers and skin of the bird to defend their nest and in doing so dislodge parasites which react to the formic acid spray by loosening their grip on the bird, then being easier to preen.
We then move to a carrion crow ‘anting’ in grass.
To encourage greater ant activity you see it throwing out lumps of grass which are presumably from the ants nest entrance bringing a greater ant response to the crow threat above.
Perhaps the stimulus to the ant colony was too successful as, at the end of the video the crow suddenly jumps up and runs away. Our guess is that the ants have found the crows more sensitive areas….