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