Comfort behaviour of the Spotted Wood Owl

Posted by BESG on 27 October 09, Tuesday
Contributed by Hong & Cheng

These images by Hong & Cheng a.k.a. catspace show a Spotted Wood Owl (Strix seloputo) indulging in its comfort behaviour. This includes it stretching a wing and a leg, usually one side at a time (above left). Then it preened its feathers to keep them in top condition (above right). Those feathers around the head area where the bill has no access, the owl has to use its feet to scratch (left).

Here, scratching is direct, done by raising its foot from under its wing, characteristic of terrestrial birds, as seen in the Red-breasted Parakeet (Psittacula alexandri), also in the Grey Nightjar (Caprimulgus indicus). Among aboreal birds, on the other hand, scratching is indirect. The leg is extended over the wing to reach the head, as in Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica).

Images by Hong & Cheng, taken at Jurong in September 2009.

Related Posts:

Scratching among birds Jason Cho photographed a Red-breasted Parakeet (Psittacula alexandri) scratching... Scratching among birds II In an earlier post, a Red-breasted Parakeet (Psittacula alexandri)... Nesting of Whiskered Treeswift An earlier post describes the courtship and mating of... Purple Heron in comfort mode The Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) is a common resident... Bee-eaters and comfort behaviour Bee-eaters are known to spend up to 10% of... Oriental Pied Hornbill in comfort behaviour At around 1250 hours on the 23rd July 2008, there... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Email Post

Categories: Comfort behaviour

No comments yet.

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Mail (will not be published) (required)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.