Go Retire Psychiatrist

Sena got a pretty good video of a Red-tail hawk doing what some (maybe most) people would call the “horaltic” pose. There is a long discussion of whether the word “horaltic” is even a word. Some people suggest that the word should be “heraldic” but that probably doesn’t fit either. By the way, “horaltic” is not in the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh Edition, if that means anything.

Most explanations I see of the word say it’s a pose that some birds take in order to dry off after their wings get wet or to warm up, or to bake the bugs off. That is, if the bird is not a duck—I guess. On the other hand, somebody got a photo of a heron doing something similar to but not exactly like the horaltic pose. It reminds me of the tanning reflectors people used back in the 1960s—which I didn’t need to use.

Well, we’ve got video of hawks taking this pose in a driving rain. I’d say that this is a funny way to dry off wings. Maybe they’re trying to drown the parasites and bacteria clinging to their wings.

I know. Maybe they’re trying to assume a pose that many bodybuilders take in order to show dominance like flexing their muscles. Could you call this feather flexing?

Or maybe it’s a yoga or a Zen thing (think “be the ball”). Be the umbrella.