Jun 7, 2021 · Photographer Tony Austin knew he had gotten lucky when a murder of crows landed near him on a recent nature walk. But then one of the birds started acting strangely. Austin started shooting —...

Anting is a maintenance behavior during which birds rub insects, usually ants, on their feathers and skin. A bird may hold a single ant in its beak to rub over the body, or lie in an area of high insect density and wallow as when dust bathing. Ants secrete chemicals like formic acid to aid in their defense against bacteria and parasites. [1]

Jun 10, 2021 · After a three-hour walk through a British Columbia nature reserve, photographer Tony Austin had a stroke of luck when a murder of crows landed about 40 feet up the path from him. As one bird...

Apr 28, 2022 · Crows use the passive type of anting almost exclusively. Ants from the subfamily Formicinae produce and spray the chemical for defense, to attack, and to mark trails. The crow was purposely provoking the ants to spray her feathers.

Aug 13, 2012 · What it was actually doing was anting – allowing ants to swarm over its feathers to get rid of ectoparasites. This is one of the various methods birds adopt to keep their feathers in top form LINK. The image above shows the ants swarming all over its head. Suddenly it jumped up and ran towards another anthill (above) and dived in.

Jun 7, 2021 · Photographer Tony Austin knew he had gotten lucky when a murder of crows landed near him on a recent nature walk. But then one of the birds started acting strangely. Austin started shooting —...

Jun 6, 2021 · Photographer Tony Austin recently captured a peculiar image of a crow with its wings covered in dozens of tiny black ants in the throes of what appeared to be a behaviour he described as a...

Jul 8, 2021 · A photographer stumbled upon the rare sight of a crow taking a bath in ants, a phenomenon known as anting. Learn the story behind the photos.

Jun 9, 2021 · Photographer Tony Austin was at the tail-end of a 3-hour nature walk recently when a murder of crows landed nearby. When one of the crows started “acting strangely,” Austin began photographing...

Active anting involves the bird picking up ants in its beak one by one and vigorously wiping them over its feathers, especially focusing on the wings and tail. Birds like jays, crows, and turkeys frequently engage in this frantic form of anting.