Occasionally, when ground feeding birds like towhees, thrashers or doves emerge from the shade into direct sunlight, they undertake an astonishing behaviour.
They drop onto their belly, droop their wings and spread their tail feathers like a fan. With their back to the sun and feathers fluffed, they may lean to one side and flatten themselves with their bill open, gasping for air. With their head turned to one side, one eye is gazing up at the sun.
This extraordinary performance looks remarkably like a fatal case of heat stroke, but in fact they’re just taking a bath. A sun bath.
Mourning Dove taking a sun bath
Over 170 species of birds of all sizes have been observed taking a sun bath. Most ‘bathe’ on the ground, but birds have been known to use any flat surface – tree branches, tops of utility poles, fence posts, windowsills or in this case, the top of a greenhouse roof.
They may look ridiculous, but their sun bath has some valuable benefits.
Heat (energy) from the sun is absorbed into the skin and body. Heat from solar radiation can also save the energy a bird requires from its food, and the energy used to obtain it.
The production of Vitamin D is stimulated.
Heat and light cause ectoparasites (feather lice, mites and other small critters) to move to the head and beneath the wings. Here the bird can easily remove them by preening or scratching.
So if you happen to come across a bird that looks like it’s in the last stages of heat prostration, just watch it for a while. Chances are it will perk up and fly away when it’s finished its spa treatment.
Sunbathing birds are indeed beautiful .. And fun to watch. Now I know why they do this, enjoyed this post.
I have seen several birds sunning themselves like this before but last Monday, August 24, was the best. In the afternoon there was a Great Blue Heron at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary in Calgary which was standing on a log in the pond, facing the sun. It had its wings spread out and held down low, turned to maximize the surface facing the sun. Its bill was slightly open, and occasionally it made little throaty sounds. It stayed like that for quite a while and I got some pictures.