[EBB Sightings] Evening dust bath

All,

Wrens are professional dust bathers.  To see how to do it properly, check
out:

http://montereybay.com/creagrus/MTYlistBEWR.html



On Tue, 7 Jun 2005 22:45:58 -0700 (PDT), Bob Power 
wrote:

>Carla, 
>A couple of quick hits from Google under "dust bathing
>birds." The beauty of the web. 
>Best regards,
>Bob Power
>Oakland, CA
>1.  Often birds dust bathe in more open
>situations, where they flick dust with their feet and
>sometimes shuffle
>wings; Birds often shake and preen immediately
>after dust bathing. The purpose is not well known, but
>probably helps
>condition feathers and may discourage lice and other
>small skin parasites.
>2.  Why do birds play in the dust? 
>For birds, rolling in the dust is one way they take a
>bath. 
>First, some fine-feathered facts. Birds have a lot of
>oil in their feathers. Regular bathing and preening --
>that's a bird's way of combing their feathers with
>their beaks -- helps keep feathers in top-flight
>shape. 
>You'll probably never see a seagull take a dust bath,
>simply because it lives around a lot of water. Some
>birds that live on land prefer water baths, but during
>really dry summers they still keep clean by bathing in
>dirt. And, birds that live in really dry areas like
>the desert always wash up with dust. 
>Every bird has its own bath-time ritual. Dust bathers
>make a lot of dust by scraping the ground. Then they
>fluff out their feathers and splash their wings in the
>dirty mess. Next, they wriggle in the dirt to cover
>their breast feathers, and they throw dust on their
>back with their mouth until their whole body is a
>dusty mess. Finally, they preen their feathers back in
>place. While bathing in dust might seem silly to you,
>it makes perfect sense for these birds. The dust
>absorbs any extra oil in their feathers. 
>--- Carla Din  wrote:
>> The other evening, I observed a House Wren fluffing
>> its feathers in the dust on the West Ridge trail in
>> Redwood Park.  Does anyone know anything about this
>> behavior?  I understand it's pretty common with
>> birds!
>>  
>> Thanks,
>> Carla
>> 
>> 		
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-- 
Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA 94044  jmorlan (at) ccsf.org 
Fall Birding Classes start Sep 13  http://fog.ccsf.edu/~jmorlan/
California Bird Records Committee  http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/