28 thoughts on “Man bathes goldfinch in his hands”

  1. I was looking for our American goldfinch which has much more yellow plumage. This is, of course, the European variety.
    It seems to invest quite a bit of energy into this ritual. Toward the end of the clip the camera is getting soaked. 😎

  2. What a lovely relationship! That little bird was really getting itself nicely wet too!

  3. I first read the title as ‘Man bathes *goldfish* in his hands’ and was confused.

    -Florian

          2. Yep, me too. But that was just until I hit the embedded image, and the odd word congealed to a sensible one.

          6. I sent my wife this video (from another source) and she made the same mistake: A Man and His Goldfish.

    2. I know! I was thinking, aren’t goldfish always bathing? How did this one get dirty? And what sort of person imagines they have a relationship of any kind with a fish? Of course then I reread it and felt a bit daft.

      1. According to a post a few threads back, we are taxonomically all fish (so I presume that includes birds?)

        But in fact there are numerous stories of people who have had relationships with fish, of the floating-around-in-water kind, all the way from Moby Dick* to A Fish Called Wanda.

        cr

        *Yeah I know Moby Dick was a whale, but then if we are fish whales must be too.

    3. You reminded me. Now I think about it, I also read “Goldfish” but must have forgotten immediately.

    1. I wonder if it is a reflex pattern. It did had a method of “soak and beat”, one wing at a time. (For balance, I would assume, a bird beating its wing is bound to have odd lift forces exerted on itself.)

      2. I have seen identical movements in parakeets. I think bathing is likely an ancient and deeply ingrained trait in birds.

  6. marvelous – I could almost feel that little, happy bird in my hands. The big arms and hands and tattoos and the fragile, delighted bird – what a scene. I wish I could make a bird bath of my hands with a bathing bird in them.

  7. I forgot to mention that the colour & pattern on the bird’s face makes it look angry, which is amusingly contrasted with its movements which make it look joyful. 🙂

  8. Most birds love bathing. People with pet psittacines often take their birds into the shower with them.

    I can never stop watching a bathing bird! My neighbor across the street has a perennial puddle at the end of his driveway that attracts scads of avians.

    Here’s the url of a Japanese web-cam with a really nice water feature that attracts a lot of birds:

    http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chibanosaito

  9. How remarkable and precious. It reminds me that we are not so set apart from our fellow animals to not cherish their companionship – in both directions 🙂

    1. Indeed. Part of it is the communication that can be established. My d*g seems to enjoy listening for commands. And when she needs something, she stares at me as if to say, “I can’t talk, but I think you know what I want”. And, I usually do.

Comments are closed.