Behavior
A field study late in the Florida nesting season revealed that on an average day, adult American White Ibis spent 10.25 hours looking for food, 0.75 hours flying, 13 hours resting, roosting, and attending to their nests. Much of the time roosting is spent preening, biting and working their feathers with their long bills, as well as rubbing the oil glands on the sides of their heads on back plumage. American White Ibis generally only preen themselves, not engaging in allopreening unless part of courtship behavior. Bathing often takes place before preening; ibis squat in water 5–20 cm (2–8 in) deep and flick water over themselves with each wing in succession. Hundreds of birds may bathe together around the time of courtship.
The American White Ibis is territorial, defending the nesting and display sites against intruders. Agonistic or threat displays include lunging forward with the bill in a horizontal posture, and standing upright and snapping the bill opposite another bird engaging in the same display. Birds also lunge and bite, often holding onto an opponent's head or wings.
Read more about this topic: American White Ibis
Famous quotes containing the word behavior:
“As long as male behavior is taken to be the norm, there can be no serious questioning of male traits and behavior. A norm is by definition a standard for judging; it is not itself subject to judgment.”
—Myriam Miedzian, U.S. author. Boys Will Be Boys, ch. 1 (1991)
“Two things in America are astonishing: the changeableness of most human behavior and the strange stability of certain principles. Men are constantly on the move, but the spirit of humanity seems almost unmoved.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“To a first approximation, the intentional strategy consists of treating the object whose behavior you want to predict as a rational agent with beliefs and desires and other mental states exhibiting what Brentano and others call intentionality.”
—Daniel Clement Dennett (b. 1942)