This afternoon my daughter called me into the backyard to see a bird lying on its back. Looked like it might be sunning itself at the beach or something. Small bird with a grey back and white underside. I assumed it must have gotten injured, as I’ve never seen a bird in that position to begin with, and it did not flee despite us crowding around it. But then we bent over for a closer look and it suddenly showed tremendous energy, flipping itself over and taking off like a rocket for the backyard fence some 80 feet away.
What might have caused its initial strange position? (It was not below anything that it might have dropped off of.)
I’m guessing ill or injured, since lying up-side-down on the ground isn’t really a normal position for any bird. When it got scared enough, it got together enough energy to escape.
Possibly it was “anting,” although I’ve never heard of one doing it on its back before. Birds sometimes lay flat on the ground on an ant nest, possibly to get rid of parasites. They can get into some weird postures.
Birds will feign injury to lure predators away from discovering their nest, but this doesn’t seem like the right time of year for them to have a nest and young.
I thought of that, or dust-bathing, too. But I’ve never seen one doing it on its back, and usually they’re aware enough of their surroundings to take off when approached.
Although the OP says it was not below anything, my money is on a stunned bird. Maybe flew into a window/wall/treetrunk and bounced a bit, or fluttered a bit on its way down.
My guess is sunbathing to rid itself of feather mites. I’ve seen a Brown Creeper do this. It was spread out wide on the side of a tree. I too thought it was injured, but it fluttered off a few moments later and I researched the behavior when I got home. I’ve also had a mama Kildeer do the fake broken wing thing about 5 feet in front of me. Fascinating to watch! She was flopping around a great deal though, holding one wing high, and hopping in a wide circle. I’m sure the dance varies by species, but I think it would be obvious if it was doing this. Could have been stunned. A stunned bird will be uncharacteristically still, even letting a crowd of people walk right up to it. I imagine it to be like how bunnies will freeze if they feel threatened.
This makes me want to go birding again. I haven’t been in years. Amazing the cool things you can witness!
A kildeer pulled that act on me, so I walked in the direction opposite of where she was leading and found her nest. A fox might fall for it, but compared with me they are stupid.
