The Laughing Dove’s (Streptopelia senegalensis) so-called antics as shown in the video is actually part of its comfort behaviour. Such behaviour increases the physical comfort of the bird, and includes vigorous stretching of its wings, fluffing its feathers, fanning its tail feathers, preening and oiling its feathers.
Also included as comfort behaviour are water bathing, leaf bathing, dust bathing, anting and sunning.
Most of these activities are to maintain the feathers in tip-top condition. Stretching is to get the blood flowing to the muscles.
Lakshmi Ravishankar
Pune, India
30th September 2016
One Response
I loved this video and the explanation that it is required to keep the bird’s flying machine in top condition. I wish the traffic sound could be masked by other bird sound in an overlay while editing.