(Wikipedia) The Egyptian plover, also known as the crocodile bird,
is a localized resident in tropical
sub-Saharan
Africa. It breeds on sandbars in
very large rivers. This usually very tame bird is found in pairs or
small groups near water. It feeds by pecking for
insects. Its two or three
eggs are not incubated, but are
buried in warm sand, temperature control being achieved by the adult
sitting on the eggs with a water-soaked belly to cool them. If the
adult leaves the nest, it smoothes sand over the eggs, though if it
is frightened the job may be hasty. The chicks are
precocial, and can run as soon as
they are hatched and feed themselves shortly afterwards. The adults
bury the chicks in the sand temporarily if danger threatens. |
The bird is sometimes referred to as the crocodile bird for
its alleged
symbiotic relationship with
crocodiles. According to
Herodotus, the crocodiles lie on
the shore with their mouths open, and a bird called "trochilus"
flies into the crocodiles' mouths so as to feed on decaying meat
lodged between the crocodiles' teeth. The identification of the
trochilus with any particular plover is doubtful, as is the
cleaning symbiosis itself; no known
photographic evidence exists, and the written accounts are
considered suspect by the biologist Thomas Howell.
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