Ejecting

In the back garden. Gorgeous young robin. spectacular spots. Standing at attention.

Faster than I could have photographed it spit out a pit. It's not deliberate. The body ejects what it can't digest. I saw the pit fly out. For pictures it's great that the pit was orange. 

The robin didn't leave. In about ten seconds it ejected a second pit. I saw that. What I didn't notice till image was in computer was that its body also eject pits at the other end. I've never seen that before. Good lesson is systemic removal. after about thirty seconds the robin flew off. This is in no way distressing to a bird when its body does a cleansing.

The larger raptors also eject pellets. This is a pellet from a great horned owl. The picture makes it look enormous. The pellet was only about the size of a peach pit. Scientists can analyze the content of a pellet to find out what the bird has been devouring. Sometimes it's discovered that something has been eaten that nobody knew lived in the area.

I knew that raptors eject pellets, but didn't know that nestlings can also eject pellets. The parent robins bring their babies huge quantities of stuff. Mixed in with worms and bugs can be dirt and twigs. It's that accumulated "stuff" that the tiny bodies can't process. Out comes a pellet. If I didn't get the pictures my pals wouldn't believe me.

Again, this is not distressing to the bird.  The body is in charge. Can't be processed? Out it goes.