Grey Heron and Blue-tailed Bee-eater cooling off

Posted by BESG on 18 November 08, Tuesday
Contributed by Choo Teik Ju & Lee Tiah Khee

The afternoon of 18th October 2008 was excessively hot at the Chinese garden in Jurong and Choo Teik Ju a.k.a. choo caught sight of a Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) cooling off (above left).

Lee Tiah Khee has similarly caught a Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops philippinus) cooling off in the image on the right (above).

Yes, birds cool off by panting. Opening its mouth allows evaporation to take place over an increased area. And evaporation cools the body. At the same time water vapour from the lungs and air sacs evaporates, adding to the cooling effect.

Herons indulge in gular fluttering, opening their mouth wide and at the same time fluttering the thin gular membranes of the throat. This exposed a large featherless area to moving air.

Cormorants, pelicans, owls and nighthawks similarly indulge in gular fluttering, although the gular sacs of the first two groups are more prominent.

Image of heron by Choo Teik Ju and of bee-eater by Lee Tiah Khee.

This post is a cooperative effort between www.naturepixels.org and BESG to bring the study of bird behaviour through photography to a wider audience.

Related Posts:

Blue-tailed Bee-eater and the dragonfly Lee Tiah Khee photographed a Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops philippinus)... Blue-tailed Bee-eater manipulating a dragonfly One of bee-eaters’ favourite food, or at least what... Brown-throated Sunbird mobs Blue-tailed Bee-eater Chong Yih Yeong documented a rare moment of a... Blue-tailed Bee-eater: Breeding in Ipoh, Malaysia? “This is my second sighting of juveniles Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops... Grey Heron feeds on fish “On Sunday, 6th December 2009, while conducting a survey along... Bee-eater catching fish in lake? Lee Tiah Khee managed to photograph a Blue-tailed Bee-eater... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Email Post

Categories: Bee-eaters, Heron-Egret-Bittern, Miscellaneous

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Anti-spam word: (Required)*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.