Sandy Chian has similarly documented a male Copper-throated Sunbird (Leptocoma calcostetha) leaf-bathing at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve in February 2009 – see earlier post HERE.
Her image of the sunbird sitting on the wet leaf, fluffing his wing feathers with its slender tongue just sticking out of the tip of its bill is shown above. The image below shows the same bird with all his feathers damp from all the rubbing against the wet leaf about ready to fly off to preen.
Images by Sandy Chian.
Bird Ecology Study Group Birds bathing in the rain
[…] They will roll on the surface of a large leaf to soak up the droplets of water after a rain LINK or even after the plants in the garden are watered LINK. Related posts:Blue-tailed Bee-eater in the […]
V. Santharam
Here is a post describing the bathing of birds on water present on leaf surface in India:
https://in.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/tamilbirds/conversations/topics/3991
V. Santharam,
Rishi Valley, Andhra Pradesh, India