“It was late in the evening, at around 5.00pm when the birds would come one at a time to their favorite bathing spot, a small shallow flowing stream in the middle of the jungle. The lighting was pretty bad, but my video-cam just manage to cope with the condition.
“The first to the bathing spot was the Cream-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus simplex), considered an uncommon bird, and nationally near threatened. The bulbul was at first very wary of my presence, hopping from branch to branch and maintaining a constant visual contact with me. Having satisfied that I was no threat, it plonked itself into the shallow flowing stream. With vigorous fluffing and shaking of feathers, it started to have a bath. The bird hopped out of the water, proceeded with drying its feathers, and than hopped back down into the pool and got itself wet again. And for a couple more times!
“After the Cream-vented Bulbul left the bathing spot, the Short-tailed Babbler (Malacocincla malaccensis) ventured in and having seen that the bulbul was not at all harmed by my presence, immediately went into the pool to have a bath. The babbler did the same thing as the bulbul, wetting itself and shaking off the water from its plumage – then preening, before going back into the water to wet itself again.
“Was its action of shaking off the water also allowed it to shake of some parasites living among its feathers?”
KC Tsang
Singapore
21st August 2010
One Response
Wow. With videocam, who needs a pair of bins?