The ohsosubtle art of preening
We humans are supremely lucky. We have limbs: hands and legs, and those wondrously pilotable fingers. Our fingers allow us to reach just about every part of our bodies to scratch, soothe. Several of our mammalian cousins can, in fact, use all four limbs to attend to themselves.
Birds display remarkable strategies of bodily care. Their most visible feature is their feathers. Not only do the feathers endow these bundles of energy with marvellous flight but also enable their survival in hot, cold and wet weather.
Naturally, utmost care must be taken of feathers.
I am sure most of you have, at some time, witnessed birds displaying crazy postures whilst using their beaks, and sometimes their legs, to reach just about any spot on their bodies, often with the wings and the tail outspread.
On the window ledge, shrub, ground, treetop, electric pole, even in the water, birds do this much of the time.
This is called preening, and is possibly the most common bird activity after feeding. It’s the secret to avian survival, to them keeping healthy.
Handsome, libidinous male birds or dull and somber ladies, they must all preen. After all, there are several thousand feathers on most birds, and up to 25,000 (yes, you read that right!) on some species.
This immense army of feathers must be kept in top-notch condition, for flight, for feeding and for so much else, even song and strut.
In fact so vital is this activity that birds even have a preen gland, called the uropygial gland. Located near the base of the tail, this gland yields an oily secretion that birds rub on to their beaks and regularly spread to the feathers.
It’s a sort of waterproofing concoction, to make each feather more flexible. While most birds have these glands, those that lack it are endowed with special feathers that disintegrate into a powder that gets rubbed on to the other feathers. Nature’s ways are amazing!
While many birds also use their legs for preening, it is the beak that is the comb, brush, finger, all rolled into one. It moves through feathers, straightening each strand, ensuring it is flat whilst also removing parasites, dirt and dust.
Many birds go a step further by indulging in a short splash in water, while others partake in mud baths.
Cleaning, strengthening, flexibility, aerodynamics, bonding between sexes, moisturising... you see, long before we humanfolk had discovered the secrets of grooming and mudpacks, birds had been doing it all along, and continue to right around us, every living hour.