[Guyzerr]

This young Stellers Jay didn't seem to have any mobility issues whatsoever but I have watched it spread it's wings and tail feathers, lower it's body to the ground and stay that way for 5 minutes or so at a time. Then it will " wake up " and either walk off into the scrub or fly up into a branch of a nearby tree. It's actually done it quite a few times today.

I've never seen anything like this before and wonder if anyone has any ideas why it's doing this. BTW it's very near my feeders not that it really matters.

Pardon the lousy cell shot through the window but it's the best I could do at the time. It will at least give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

[Fancy]

Cool observation! The bird is likely "anting", where it allows ants to crawl into its feathers.
Here's a link on it: http://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/blog/2 ... uncertain/

Which states:

The function of anting has been debated for years. Proposed explanations have generally related to comfort behavior or feather maintenance. Because anting episodes are most common in late summer and early fall, a period that includes heavy avian molting, some biologists associate anting with the soothing of skin irritated during rapid feather replacement.

A more common belief is that anting controls parasites, such as biting lice and feather mites, which live in the inner catacombs of a bird’s plumage. The concentration of formic acid in the solution emitted by ants is greater than 50 percent, which laboratory studies have shown to be strong enough to kill lice and mites. But whether it will kill mites and lice on wild birds through anting has not been demonstrated.

Hope this helps!

[Guyzerr]

Thanks for the answer Bridget but I'm not sure that's it. There are no ant hills / nests in the area. Matter of fact I went out and looked the area over. Didn't see even 1 ant. That said... there is only one bird that's doing this out of about a dozen that come regularly, sometimes all in one shot.

[Isaac]

I could be wrong, but I think that jays often do that to sun themselves. So if there aren't ants around, maybe that is what he/she is doing.

[Guyzerr]

I could be wrong, but I think that jays often do that to sun themselves. So if there aren't ants around, maybe that is what he/she is doing.

You could be on to something Isaac. Every time it did it the body was in the same direction. The back was pointed in the same direction as the sun. I've never seen it before and only the one bird did it.

[derek]

Both Bridget and Isaac are correct. There are various reasons birds do this.

Here is a link that explains some of them.
http://birding.about.com/od/birdbehavio ... unning.htm

Derek

[Guyzerr]

Both Bridget and Isaac are correct. There are various reasons birds do this.

Here is a link that explains some of them.
http://birding.about.com/od/birdbehavio ... unning.htm

Derek

Thanks a very interesting read. Thanks for posting it.

[RainshadowCoast]

Good article and discussion!

The things we do for birds....I made this little duster a few years ago. It was way to small as you can see. They get really annoyed and bicker about the cramped quarters. So I made a new one twice as big and it is still way too small. The new one holds up to about 20 little brown jobs.



Anyway, during both hot summers and on cool fall days, especially between noon and 2pm, they come to catch the sun at it's zenith. And it never ceases to amaze me who is going to show up, including jays.

In the heat of early August this year a Nothern Flicker took a long bath in my fountain - first I had seen. Then he rolled around in the duster so much he turned completely gray with caked on mud with his neck feathers spiked out. He lay there for about 15 minutes, shook himself off and away he went.