Like many other Australians, I have been working at home during the Covid
Crisis. I’ve found the best place to work is on a table on the back deck of my
house, where I am out with the birdlife. The best birds from the deck during
that time were a couple of Glossy Blacks flying overhead in search of
casuarinas.
Most days I hear the characteristic plopping sounds of Noisy Miners making use
of the swimming pool. They like to swoop down from either the pool fence or a
nearby bottlebrush, briefly settle on the water (sometimes bobbing their back
under water) before turning around on the water and flying back to their
launching point. After a feather shuffle or two they generally repeat the
cycle another couple of times before flying off.
Blue-faced Honeyeaters sometimes also join the party, though they are less
confident in the water than the miners. They have more off a skipping
approach, just doing a belly skim and flying off in the same direction.
The Pied Butcherbirds don’t use the pool. They wait till it rains then get wet
by plopping into the foliage of a lillipilly and enjoy the shower from the
dripping leaves.
The lorikeets, crows and pigeons have not shown an interest in bathing.
What are other people’s observations of birds bathing in “deep” water [water
too deep to stand in]? Have people observed large birds [other than
waterbirds] bathing or species with interesting bathing styles?
Regards, Laurie.
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