Strangest behavior ever!

[KirstenJL]

Wild birds will freeze like that when a hawk is around. If I look out at the feeders during the winter and see NO birds, then I keep looking and can see a few just frozen in place. Usually I can find the hawk nearby.

 

[cottagechick]

Quote:
This is sort of of/on topic...but I have been wondering. They freeze when they see a predator...so they won't catch their attention. Why do they make so much racket when they lay an egg? Wouldn't that just let all the critters that like eggs know where they are?

 

[KirstenJL]

I've wondered that too. I also wonder if jungle fowl do it too or if it came along with domestication.

 

[Pele]

Quote:
I'm going to firmly vote domestication. My logic is that some breeds cackle more than others during egglaying, so it's clearly a matter of breeding, which has been under the sole control of humans for hundreds of years now (and millions of generations of chickens). It's kind of funny actually. My SL girls will lay in silence while my EE will imitate a banshee. You'd think the eggs were murdering her, but they're smaller than the ones that my SL girls lay.

 

[KirstenJL]

None of mine are very loud about egg-laying--I have BO's, a Dominique, a speckled Sussex, and a Jersy Giant, but they sound like a pack of dogs in the morning if I'm late letting them out!

 

[ParadiseFoundFarm]

That is exactly the behavior when mine see a coyote I cannot see.
I watch for where they are looking, grab something like a shovel or a rifle, and walk in the direction they are staring.
100% of the time I have at least flushed a coyote who was motionlesss trying to blend in.