American Crows Molting and Anting

Posted by Rosemary Drisdelle Aug 14, 2008

Every year, we watch a particular ant colony that bulges up in the same place in a front flower bed. Mourning doves scratch at it and eat the ants, then the ants make repairs and the mound grows larger. One day in August (this year it was Aug 9), thousands of ants with wings swarm out of the colony and fly away. For a few hours, the air is thick with them—insect eating birds must have a heyday—then it’s all over. A few wingless ants remain.

This year, on Aug 10, our neighborhood family of crows arrived and positioned themselves in the trees while several flew down to a sparsely vegetated rocky slope, squatted, and half spread their wings, shuffling in patches of dried leaves and low-growing mosses. Afterward, I checked where they’d been and found, as I expected, multitudes of ants. The crows were anting.

I’ve never noticed crows anting in my yard before, but this year there does seem to be an unusual multitude of ants. In August, the crows are finished breeding and they’re looking a bit scruffy – molting. I can’t help but wonder if that irritates their skin and makes them visit the ants for a little relief. I don’t think anyone really knows why having ants crawling in the feathers should be soothing, but it is one possible explanation for a curious bird behavior.