Here in Gloucester Mid North Coast, NSW I've seen White-headed Pigeons
doing this - a few days ago, an immature and an adult perched in a
neighbour's tree - the immature raising its wing to the very weak sunshine.
Sadly the White-faced Heron nest has failed in my neighbour's tall gum.
There was only one heron feeding the 2 chicks on 13 Sept. When I
returned from bird surveys late Friday, had a look at the nest Saturday
morning 18th and it was empty. One adult visited briefly. It would
appear one adult met with an accident and the other was unable to feed
the chicks on its own. There were no storms or heavy rain in this period.
The "raised wing" sunbathing display is employed by three species of
Australian pigeons that I know well, Crested Pigeon, Peaceful Dove and
Bar-shouldered Dove; undoubtedly there are more.
For the Crested Pigeon, a brief reference to it is made in HANZAB
pointing to Frith's Pigeons and Doves of Australia where it is
illustrated on page 241.
I've seen it most often during a light rain shower but it also occurs
when the sun is warm during cooler weather. Bar-shouldered Doves do
this frequently in our back yard at Beerwah in Qld during summer.
The brief flicking up of the wing described by Stephen Ambrose may be
some other behaviour but during the "sunbathing sessions" I see here
at home birds sometimes raise the wing briefly, sometimes several
times almost as if they can't quite get comfortable. There are
pictures of Bar-shouldered Doves sunbathing on my website.
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