Birds have a mess of feathers to keep clean

While it’s true that birds have no sense of toilet training (as anyone with a bird bath knows), their sense of feather cleanliness is finely honed.

My friend Jane Nelson, who often has a bird tale, observed a brown creeper on a large Douglas fir proving that point. The bird preened its feathers, then flew to a dusty area below, flattened itself with wing and tail feathers spread, and fluttered its feathers.

This two-stop ritual repeated itself four times. No, not temporary insanity, just a bird with an instinctual understanding that feather fitness was not about looks but about survival.

Birds spend more time preening their feathers than even the most narcissist folk spend on hairstyles. A feather, which is a dead structure, doesn’t have a circulatory system that can help keep it in top shape. And since there are about 2,000 feathers on average, and each feather must be attended to, the time mounts up in the feather-care department.

So the birds preen, which is partly removal of old dirt and oil, partly re-aligning barbules and hooks that latch the barbs together into an aerodynamic whole, partly nibbling at parasites, and partly adding new oil to its feathers from an oil gland at the base of the tail for conditioning and waterproofing, although the latter is not a slam dunk conclusion among the scientific community.

Many ornithologists are leaning toward the theory that the feather structure provides the waterproofing and the oil acts as a conditioner that helps the feathers last longer. The oil may have elements that help defend against bacteria and fungi. Clean and healthy feathers also provide better insulation.

Not all birds use oil. Great blue herons, for instance, have powder-down feathers scattered over their body that are designed to break down into a powder during the preening process.

All this preening activity makes sense, as does bathing in water, but the brown creeper’s dust stirring is a little less clear, unless you remember that nature has a method to its madness even if people aren’t always tuned in.

Many species take dust baths. The fluttering and feather-fluffing helps drive the fine dust particles through the feathers. One theory is that many blood-sucking and skin-chewing lice mites and other ectoparasites breathe through tiny holes in their exoskeletons. The holes are so small that dust particles can clog up the holes, perhaps killing them. The dust may also remove excess oil.

Birds have other feather-related behaviors. Some birds appear to sunbathe, laying down and spreading their wings. No experimental evidence is available as to a definitive reason although there are lots of theories.

Some birds engage in anting, basically squatting over an anthill and allowing the ants to crawl over them and attack the bird’s ectoparasites. Hundreds of species will wait for the ants or pick up ants and rub them over their feathers, presumably because the threatened ants release formic acid that may kill or repel feather lice.

Nature still has many learning opportunities for scientists and birdwatchers alike.

Never-ending story. Bird stories are almost always positive ones. Reader Terry Baker shares this one.

“I was in the back yard, in the evening, placing rocks along the edge of my pond. It was quiet except for the birds coming and going from the bird feeder a few feet away.

“I heard an odd fluttering sound and when I looked up there was a hummingbird flitting about above the pond. My pond is so narrow it was pretty close, and at times only 14 to 16 inches from my face.

“It stayed about three or four minutes then left and came back and stayed for several more minutes. I kept moving my head to watch it, which didn’t seem to bother it.

“(The female rufous hummingbird) seemed to be attracted by the sound of the water dribbling from the bamboo water spout.”

Water is a huge factor in drawing birds and in their well-being; and the sound of water does attract them to the source. If you want to draw more birds to your back yard, just add water.

Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.