[Birdtalk] Brown Creeper basking behavior?

[Kristin Purdy]

Ryan,

Thanks for reporting such an interesting behavior and offering a picture so 
the rest of us can see what you saw.

You're in luck both by witnessing this behavior and by asking your question 
about what the bird was doing. See the article at the link below by Leck, 
1989, entitled Sunbathing in the Brown Creeper. Seems as though your bird's 
sunbathing has not been witnessed very often according to the creeper's 
species profile in Cornell's Birds of North America Online, the place where 
I originally came across this reference.

Kris

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/wb/v20n02/p0091-p0092.pdf
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ryan O'Donnell" <ryan at biology.usu.edu>
To: <birdtalk at utahbirds.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2008 5:52 AM
Subject: [Birdtalk] Brown Creeper basking behavior?


>A week or so ago I saw a Brown Creeper climbing the tree in my front
> yard.  Twice it stopped, pressed its body to the trunk, and splayed out
> its wings and tail.  It would stay in this position for maybe five to
> twenty seconds and then proceed foraging up the trunk.  It only did this
> in the sun, and the sun was bright and warm that day, so I assumed it
> was basking, but I don't know.  Maybe it was displaying for a potential
> mate, or trying to maximize its camoflage.  Any thoughts?  Here's a
> photo:
>
> http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105/Tsirtalis/BRCR.jpg
>
> -Ryan
>
> Ryan P. O'Donnell
> Department of Biology and the Ecology Center
> Utah State University
> 5305 Old Main Hill
> Logan, UT 84322-5305
>
> http://200birds.blogspot.com
>
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