All of us, I bet, have seen a bird take a bath, be it in water or dust. And what we see is a quick blur of feathers surrounded by flying dust or splashing water. What happens when you slow the action down?
Earth Unplugged used extremely slow motion to film a starling taking a water bath, and after the singleton bathes, a whole group bathes at once, as if in a Turkish bath.
I was struck by how they manage to get between all their feathers which, of course, is to remove dust and parasites. It reminded me of how my parents would tell me to wash between my toes when I was small.
I wasn’t not clear why the filmmakers talked about how the baths help the birds maintain their waterproofing, but a Stanford University website on why birds bathe has one answer, at least for dust baths:
When birds bathe in water or saturate themselves with dust they are actively maintaining their plumage. In well-watered areas bathing is most common, in arid ones dusting is more often observed. Experiments with quail show that frequent dusting helps to maintain an optimum amount of oil on the feathers. Excess plumage lipids, including preen oil, are absorbed by the dust and expelled along with dry skin and other debris. If quail are prevented from dusting, their feathers quickly become oily and matted. Dusting may also help to discourage bird lice, but no experimental evidence exists as yet showing that to be the case.
Wrens and House Sparrows frequently follow a water bath with a dust bath (one reason to suspect an anti-parasite function for dusting). Overall, the amount of time and effort birds put into bathing and dusting indicates how critical feather maintenance may be. Feathers are marvelous and intricate devices, but keeping them functional requires constant care.
Of course getting rid of parasites and grit has to be an important function of bathing as well. The half-page piece is well worth reading, as it describes how different kind of birds manage to bathe themselves using a diversity of techniques.
h/t: Heather Hastie
love the name “preen oil”.
Sounds like a product from Johnson and Johnson.
Or something they cook fish and chips in to lower the fat content. 😀
But these is birds. Think fried chicken!
b&
But think of the poor preens!
sounds like what the kids just call “product”
Incredible, in the nonliteral sense of the word.
I like how they scoop the water up with their little bums & then scoot it over their backs.
This last, cold winter I saw a bunch of starlings bathing in a puddle at the end of my yard that had formed from a warm spot in the snow.
One hopes the warm spot wasn’t yellow….
b&
No, it was nice & clean: http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w666/ddmacpherson/11499340476_12970e1cfe_o_zps49d7ae9c.jpg
Not for long, I’m sure….
b&
Great vid! Bathing birds fascinate me, as do Starlings, reviled though they are.
A couple of years ago I got some shots of Bewick’s Wrens dust-bathing:
http://www.whatbird.com/forum/index.php?/topic/100334-oregon-jaunt/?p=472442
(scroll down within that post)
Wild Turkeys make huge dust-bathing sites in the path around our field. I’d love to catch one in action!
Apologies in advance if that link posts here as an image…I have removed the http://…
Great pics, Diana🐥
Ewhoops – i meant Diane, but Diana’s are good, too.
Don’t worry, that happens all the time. At least Diana’s someone I don’t mind being mistaken for!
🙂 right back atcha!
🙂
Okay, get a room, you two!
b&
Not sure where Ewhoops came from…
iWhoops, on the other hand…
Yeah, there’s bound to be an iWhoops somewhere, and probably also a My Whoops…
Amazing! They seem to be showering as much as bathing, the water goes everywhere. My chickens (when I had them) used to love to have dust baths in specially constructed (by them) depressions in the ground. Then they’d lie in them and lift a wing to sunbathe.
A little bit of pareidolia at work beginning at about the 0:59 mark–a human figure rising out of the water on the far side of the bowl and running off. Scared off by the bird? Or do I need my meds?
I see what you mean! But to me, the figure fragments before “he” gets out of the dish. 🙂
One thing to note is the speed of their wing and head motions relative to the falling drops of water. Due to much shorter axon lengths as well as cube-square strength-to-mass scaling considerations, their reflexes are roughly an order of magnitude faster than ours. What looks to us like water flying around at random is to them a slo-mo cloud of suspended droplets through which they can weave their wings to get an effective bath.
I had to watch the slow motion parts several times; first to watch the droplets, then the birds, and again to really catch the interaction between the two. Thank you for your explanation of why it all looked so well coordinated.
Thanks for that-really fascinating info!
I suppose the ideas of the benefits of water baths and dust baths are based on tests to see what happens when birds are kept from bathing.
I put a bird bath in the back yard two months ago, and it’s been a lot of fun to see the mourning doves, grackles, blue jays and sparrows all take turns displaying different styles of drinking and bathing. This video will definitely enhance that experience!
Those of you on the ‘wrong’ side of the Atlantic may not have seen this story about how Prozac is harming bird populations including starlings, by altering their behaviour
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/21/prozac-may-be-harming-bird-populations-study-suggests