The picatharte moves silently by jumps of great amplitude, a little to the manner of the trushes, most of the time on the ground, being perched sometimes on broken branches, or liana, between 1 m and 1,50 m of the ground, never over 3 meters. Once perched and if no danger is seen, it smoothes lengthily its feathers. Every stop is used to perfect its aspect that it maintains thus very neat. The remainder of the time, it expresses a feverish activity, its displacements are ceaseless and it remains very attentive to the environment in which it evolves. Sometimes it scrapes the ground to pick here and there small invertebrates. It uses only seldom its short wings and does it only when it is obliged: to flee a danger or to cross an open place. Before engaging in open ground where it is very vulnerable, fearing in particular the long-tailed hawk (Urotriorchis macrourus), it takes care and carry out a long halt during which it observes attentively the zone to be crossed.
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Its excellent sight is well adapted to the half-light of the under growth. As soon as an intruder is detected, it immobilized; its extreme attention allows him to discover immediately the observer even well dissimulated. The bird then takes a whole series of amusing postures (photo against and below): it stays up on its long legs, tightens its neck for better seeing and turns the head to observe with an eye then with the other. Then, it leaves its observation post and moves by small jumps towards the observer, who will not be long in losing the trace of the bird, so much it can use the cover of the vegetation to mask its progression. |
One finds oneself then observed by the animal, often at close (4 to 5 meters), the head of the bird emerging from a bush and the body remaining perfectly hidden. The movements and the sharp colours of the head, make it possible to rediscover the curious one. This observation can last a score of minutes and if one remains perfectly motionless two cases can arise according to whether the nest is located in a zone attended by the men or not. |
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In the first case, the bird recognizing the principal predator of its chicks will not move any more, it will not approach its nest, its eggs will be forsaken or its chicks will not be nourished. The animal discreetly will be dissimulated behind an obstacle: thick bush or rock, where it will remain during hours, its head emerging from time to time to see if the intruder is still there.But when the bird is not familiarized with the men, after a few minutes, reassured by the immobility of the intruder and pushed by its great curiosity, it will proceed to an observation dance. Fluttering in circles, from liana to liana, it will fly arround the observer of its heavy and noisy flight, the legs hanging, the neck tended downwards. Its aspect is then rather awkward and not very gracious. At each station on a liana, it emits a kind of breath " chchuuu ", inflating the throat, roughcasting the feathers located at the base of the neck. Then it will reduced the circle and with the second or the third turn, it will again make a pause to observe. It happened that the two birds of a couple proceed together to this dance in circle. Its curiosity satisfied the animal will took the path of the nest but will hesitate a long time before to join it. Suddenly, of a very abrupt jump, it will stay on the edge of the nest. Thereafter, the picathartes will not express any anxiety due to the presence of the observer but sometimes its curiosity will push it to approach at less than three meters. Once satisfied it will testify as much indifference to the intruder than to the numerous bats living in the cavity in which it built its nest. The picathartes often disturbs the bats by its movements, starting their take-off when it passes by.
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