Yesterday in the Garden I watched a Great Spotted Woodpecker preening in a very strange way.
It struck me as adopting a Woodpecker Yoga position!
The photo I took (link below) was admittedly very poor, however in it you could make out its feet either side of the head - it was hanging upside down from curved branch just above it.
http://www.abcissa-websites.co.uk/pix/wp.jpg
It then inserted it's head BETWEEN its legs and the branch and preened the vent area.
I'm assuming this was preening however it could have been something else - it concentrated on an area near the cloaca.
This wasn't a brief one-off - after righting itself it twice went back into this position for a duration of about 5 minutes.
I wonder if anyone has seen anything like from this or any other species - and if anyone has any idea what it was doing
Cheers,
Phil
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Tuesday 8th of January 2013 08:37:19 AM
-- Edited by Phil Barnett on Wednesday 9th of January 2013 07:39:23 AM
It struck me as adopting a Woodpecker Yoga position!
The photo I took (link below) was admittedly very poor, however in it you could make out its feet either side of the head - it was hanging upside down from curved branch just above it.
http://www.abcissa-websites.co.uk/pix/wp.jpg
It then inserted it's head BETWEEN its legs and the branch and preened the vent area.
I'm assuming this was preening however it could have been something else - it concentrated on an area near the cloaca.
This wasn't a brief one-off - after righting itself it twice went back into this position for a duration of about 5 minutes.
I wonder if anyone has seen anything like from this or any other species - and if anyone has any idea what it was doing
Cheers,
Phil
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Tuesday 8th of January 2013 08:37:19 AM
-- Edited by Phil Barnett on Wednesday 9th of January 2013 07:39:23 AM