A furtive moth slurps up this sleeping bird's tears

Deep in the Amazon jungle, ecologist Leandro Moraes filmed a moth sucking the tears out of a sleeping antbird's eye.

The delicately-performed nighttime feeding is a rarely seen event, wrote Moraes in a report about the experience, entitled "Please, more tears: a case of a moth feeding on antbird tears in central Amazonia."

The short clip depicts a moth carefully dipping its tubular mouth into the bird's closed eye. For a brief moment, the antbird opens its eye, but doesn't seem to notice the large insect perched on its back -- nor the tube resting in its eyeball.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

SEE ALSO: The wilderness has returned to idyllic Cape Cod. That means great white sharks.

Consuming the tears of other animals is called lachryphagy, and has previously been witnessed in bees and butterflies consuming the tears of formidable predators: crocodiles.

Stealthily sucking another animal's tears is apparently a risk worth taking. In an intensely-competitive natural world, tears are a rich source of salts and nutrients. Sleep carefully.

---

Featured Video For You

---

A paralyzed man walks, with assistance, thanks to a new therapy that reactivates the spinal cord

---