Sunbathing

My thanks to the British Trust for Ornithology for this explanation.
 
Sunbathing’ is used by some birds as part of their routine feather maintenance and is most commonly seen by Garden Bird Watchers in Blackbirds and Robins. The birds invariably adopt a posture in which the body feathers are fluffed up and one or both wings are held out from the body, with feathers spread. It is thought that using the sun in this way does two things. It both helps the preen oil to spread across the feathers and drives parasites out from within the plumage. Some of these parasites feed on the feathers themselves and all are highly specialised, with many only found on a single species of bird.


I found this by searching for Sunbathing Birds, but once again the Internet provided me with many leads which did not refer to the feathered variety, and once again reminded me of how one dimensional my photography is.


I must get out more.