Do birds really bathe?
We have all seen a bluebird splashing around in a puddle. He certainly seems to be taking a tub for himself and enjoying every minute. He dabbles his feet, ducks down his head to wet the back of his neck and carefully washes under his wings. Some people place a bird bath in the garden to enjoy watching the little song birds take their baths and drink the bath water.
You would think a feathery bird would want to keep himself dry. After all, he cannot rub off the moisture with a towel as we do and an extra load of water would seem to make him cold and too heavy to fly. It doesn’t seem very reasonable for a bird to bathe. But he does. Once in a while he needs to dunk for reasons of health and comfort.
A bird, of course, is a tiny creature compared with us. At first you might think that he is lost and helpless in this great big world. But nothing is further from the truth. When it comes to coping with life outdoors, he is a very smart little fella and he knows a million tricks for keeping himself in fine shape.
His soft, light feathers must be kept smooth and spotless. Every day, he preens them with his bill, using oil from certain glands to stroke them silky smooth. The bittern, who is a water bird, spends an hour preening and dousing himself with oily brilliantine after every meal. Any bird must keep himself neat and streamlined, for untidy feathers interfere with his flight.
In spite of the daily preening, a certain amount of dust, dirt and grit collects among the silky feathers. Insects and various parasites also snuggle among a births feathers and maybe set up housekeeping on his skin. The bird does his best to get rid of them.
He may take a dust bath. In this case he rustles around in a pile of sand or dirt, sifting the gritty mixture through his feathers.
But a bird prefers to bathe in clean water and once in a while he must. He enjoys a shower under fresh, running water and a good place to watch him is in a stream of rippling rapids. If there is such a stream near your house, you cannot coax him into your garden with a bird bath. If there is no stream nearby, you can set up a shallow pool where the neighborhood birds can come for a tub. Make sure the floor of the bird bath is not slippery, keep the water fresh and stand by for some fascinating bird watching.
Some birds, especially those that live in dry climates, love the rain. In the dry season, they seek out the garden hoses and hover in the spray, Hank, Andy's half tame humming bird, loves the garden hose. That clever bird has learned to fly around and around with the spray, catching all the silvery drops while he enjoys a trip on a merry go round.