Magpie Robin Preening Earnestly #preening#magpierobin#birdspreening#rousing#robinbird#birdsvideo
What is Preening?
Birds preen to keep their feathers in good condition and spend most of their time in preening. All birds regularly bath and take meticulous care of their feathers.This behavior smoothens feather surfaces. It also repairs small separations in feathers by linking the individual strands in a feather together.
Preening also cleans parasites and debris out of the feathers.
A preening bird may gently nibble at their feathers, moving their beaks along the full length of each feather. At other times they may more aggressively pull their feathers through their beaks from base to tip. The birds sometimes roughly grab a tail feather and run it though her beak from base to tip. As a result the feather may bend in a horseshoe shaped arch as the tail feathers are very flexible.
If you observe this behavior you will often also see birds nibbling at the base of their tails. Located just above the base of the tail is an oil gland (uropygial gland) which, when pressed or nibbled, will release oil. While preening, this oil is spread over the feathers. If a bird’s feathers get too dried out they will become brittle. Therefore this oil is important for healthy feathers.
Furthermore, the oil helps birds by causing water to bead and run off. This oil contains antibacterial and antifungal agents to help keep the bird healthy. Plus the ultraviolet light the bird receives while sunning changes substances in the oil into vitamin D. Therefore, as they oil and preen their feathers they ingest vitamin D which subsequently helps birds to process calcium.
As flexible as they are, birds can not use their beaks to preen their head feathers. Therefore, you may observe a preening bird rubbing the sides of its face and head against its shoulders. As a result, the bird is picking up oil and smoothing its head feathers or birds may simply wipe their heads on the oil gland.
Birds may also place oil on their toes, then use their feet to comb oil through their head feathers.
Owls have special adaptations on their feet to help with this. Their two outer talons have sharp edges which enable them to easily comb through their head feathers.
Allopreening is another behavior that birds use. Mated pairs will preen each other as part of their courtship or bonding activity. One of the areas commonly preened during allopreening are each other’s heads and faces.
Both preening and rousing are similar.
What is Rousing?
Rousing is a part of preening and done for grooming and maintaince of their feathers. All birds rouse when it is required.
Rousing is the shaking of its body fastly and rapidly. This way debris from the feathers is shaken off and it helps to re-align the feathers in natural position.
