Why do birds bathe?

Shouldn’t that be bathe?
Whatever, it’s probably just a preening aid, keep those feathers in tip-top shape.

They always look like they’re enjoying it so much!

Dust gets into their feathers and can affect the efficiency of their flying? Or maybe the mother birds insist on it and the babies learn to do it. At least once a week.

I’m sure I saw a starling doing backstroke the other day, although I may have just made that up for comedic effect.

Why birds preen

Bathing is just one piece of preening as a necessity of survival.

When birds bathe in water or saturate themselves with dust they are actively maintaining their plumage. In well-watered areas bathing is most common, in arid ones dusting is more often observed. The rest of the story.

They use it to control parasites, such as mites. Either that or they’re too poor to afford installing a shower in their nests.

Keeping feathers clean is part of keeping feathers functioning.

We just put in a pool, sorry what am I writing, I of course mean a huge, enormous bird bath. Every day there are kookaburras and a host of other birds swooping into the pool for a bath. They seem to prefer later in the afternoon. So perhaps it’s to wash off the dust of the day and spruce up their feathers before bed.

The people across the road also put in a pool. I saw a duck fly up onto their pool fence the other day. Apparently they aren’t happy about having installed a duck pond.

Because birds have no practical way to apply deodorant, they bathe in order to avoid bird BO.

That’s why the skies will stink to the high heavens in autumn, when there are flocks of unwashed migratory birds flying south, looking for a warm bath.

To remove parasites.

The water is good for their skin and it’s good for the feathers to get rinsed off.
The feathers will absorb some water and get a bit extra iridescent.
They also enjoy it a lot! Except that being wet makes a bird feel more vulnerable to attack because their flying skills are a bit compromised.

As far as I know the water bath doesn’t remove parasites as much as a dust bath will.
You will see birds sometimes fluffing around in a dusty patch to toss dirt into their feathers that discourages mites and other parasites.

It is a dirty world.

Wanna breed? Take a bath. Nobody wants to sleep with someone that has parasites no matter how beautiful their song. lol

@Coloma

Nobody wants to sleep with someone that has parasites no matter how beautiful their song.

That’s sad but true- it’s time for those flying hippies to take a dippy!

How did I miss a bird question?! :(

My conure begs for a bath at least once a day, and she has a bathing pool in her cage.
My cocktiel wants the spray bath, they get a little dry under the pits sometimes, and water seems to keep it fleshy and nice.