Philpi Chen’s video clip was documented on July 2017 at United Square, near Novena MRT Station. The Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus) was taking advantage of the continuous stream of water from someone cleaning the exterior of a building nearby.
All birds enjoy a bath every now and then, even water birds. Bathing is one method of keeping the feathers in good condition. The most convenient bath is to take it when it rains. In the absence of rain, free flowing water is the next best thing. If this is unavailable, stagnant water will do. Even water droplets on leaves can be taken advantage of for a leaf bath.
Should water not be available, sand bath will do.
Birds also sun themselves and preen their feathers to keep them in good order.
Anting, placing ants on their feathers, or better still basking on an ant mound to allow the ants to swarm over them, help remove ectoparasites on their feathers. Some birds use millipedes instead of ants for this purpose. There was also an incident of anting using tree sap.
Philip Chen & YC Wee
Singapore
17th October 2017
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