ROBIN BATHS

ROBIN BATHS

Peggy Williams aka Birdie of Mississippi

            As I sit by the window to watch the Birdies that come to my yard, I notice that the robins are lined up to take a bath in my birdbath outside my kitchen window.  Right now there are two in the bath and one about four feet away waiting his turn.  They get in and splash around dipping and swinging their wings about to cover themselves with the fresh water.  The bath lasts about five minutes and then he jumps out to quickly fly away.  The next robin hops into the bath to repeat what the robin before him just has done! Later that afternoon in the heat of the day the robins do a repeat of what they had done earlier this morning!

            I have noticed this many times and even photographed them as they bathed, but today I thought to myself – why does the robin bathe so often?  Yes, I see other birds come to my birdbath to bathe and drink water, but never as often as the robin!  Since I have no degree in Ornithology, I did what most people do today – I Googled it!  And because Google gave an answer quickly, I knew that I was not the first person to wonder about the bathing habits of a robin! Lol

            Google says, “Too much oil makes the feathers clump, so the bird must wash them off.  If the feathers got sopping wet, the robin would have trouble flying.  So it takes many short baths rather than one long soak.  Bathing helps keep skin parasites off robins.”

            I also read a study done by Stanford University and their article told me that birds in wet areas use water to rid themselves of too much oil and parasites on their bodies, but birds in drier areas use dry dirt to dust themselves to accomplish the same thing.

            The other day I was in the Delta and while I was filling my gas tank I observed two Birdies down on the ground in front of me dusting themselves with some dirt off the pavement.  They did just as the robins had done at my birdbath.  They scooped up dirt with their wings and flung it around their bodies just as the wet birds had done.  It is amazing how observing these acts of the Birdies took on new meaning in my life now that I had some knowledge of what they were doing!  I now have a platter with dusty dry dirt just for birds that may prefer a dirt bath!  And I intend to buy several more birdbaths to help keep my birds healthy and well groomed. Plus I will enjoy seeing lots of Birdies taking baths during this hot summer!

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