Chicken blushing?

[SunnysideDowns]

Is this common? Our three-month-old pullets get flushed in the face when we come around. Is this an excitement blush about being around people? Seems they do it in response to us, not just treats. They get very red when we we pet them -- but they seem calm, not agitated. Their ordinary skin color is paler yellow to pink. The barred rock reddens less, but the buff Orpington, Rhode Island white, and Americauna all have the same deep blushing behavior.

Anyone know the physiology going on here?

- SunnysideDowns

 

[swedishfish]

I think this sounds interesting...

bump

 

[highcountrychickens]

That's one of the sweetest things I have ever heard... you can see this through the feathers?

Can't offer any scientific explanations, but sure got a boost from the account!!!

 

[Uppity Peon]

I think I saw this in my young cockerel Rusty at about 4 weeks. After he perched on my arm for a minute or so I looked at him and it seemed his comb was redder. Do their combs change because of temperature and excitement level?

 

[annecros]

Oh, I know exactly what you are talking about. The combs and wattles flush up whenever my BO's are excited. Good excited or bad excited.

It may be a visual way of communicating with one another. And, I guess, to me.

 

[SunnysideDowns]

@anneros: Yes, exactly, that's it!

@highcountry chickens: Yes, they are only 12 weeks old, so we can see their "face" skin around their beaks clearly through the pin feathers, as well as their ears (except for the Americauna, whose muffs have covered up her ears for the most part). When they're hanging out in their coop/run and people approach them, or even our friend's easy-going dog, their faces turn a darker red. If we're just hanging out near them when they free-range, and they get distracted pecking at things, the color goes down to a lighter pink. But if we pick them up, each one stays that brighter red color as they chill out on our laps.

The first time I noticed this was the first day they were out in a chicken tractor, and I thought they had gotten sunburned! Turned out they were just blushing.

And this trait helped chickens evolutionarily survive how?

- Sunnyside Downs

 

[swedishfish]

more blood to the brain? making them think faster and everything slow down like a superpower? adrenaline? Just guessing...

 

[LizzyJo]

We have a severe macaw and he did this often when he was a baby. As he grew older it didn't happen as much. Now (at the age of 22) it indicates he is excited about something new or scarey or feeling aggressive. When he was a baby, I think it was just excitement at new things.

Maybe this carries over into chicken behavior. With most birds you can't see the skin on their faces--maybe they all do it.

 

[annecros]

Or maybe because he's older, he just doesn't get excited about as many things.

Me, too.