View allAll Photos Tagged preening
Peregrines are fast, powerful and acrobatic, but that can't be taken for granted, it takes a lot of maintenance to keep fit and glamorous. After the rain, a lot of time is spent preening feather by feather.
Another archive shot. Came across this beautiful Swan busy preening itself and generally going through its beauty routine, on the river at Wellingborough..
It's sunrise in the La Crosse River Marsh and time to start making yourself look presentable for the day. The photographer should have taken the hint as well.
A head shot of a trumpeter swan preening its neck feathers with another swan reflected in its eyes. Seney NWR
Male Kingfisher having a tidy up
Norfolk
Many thanks to all those who fave or comment always very much appreciated
A Scarlet macaw (Ara macao), after exiting its nesting cavity, preens its tail feathers to clean them and "rezip" feather barbules that have become unhooked, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica.
27/07/2022 www.allenfotowild.com
There is usually a woodpigeon (or a Collared Dove) on this telegraph pole at South Alloa. This one is keeping its flight feathers in tip-top condition
Got a surprise with this one! I had headed outside with the camera, thinking it would be a nice day for some foggy, drippy kind of photos, and there he was! Of course, I froze and as long as I didn't move, he was fine. But eventually.... I had to move and he was off and one day I will be able to catch those flight photos!!
A preening Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) down on the Conneaut Marsh, Crawford County, Pennsylvania.
The Black-necked Stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus) is a tall long-necked wading bird in the stork family. It is a resident species across South and Southeast Asia with a disjunct population in Australia. It lives in wetland habitats to forage for a wide range of animal prey. Adult birds of both sexes have a heavy bill and are patterned in white and glossy blacks, but the sexes differ in the colour of the iris. In Australia, it is sometimes called a Jabiru although that name refers to a stork species found in the Americas.
Black Swan in Hawaii
All rights reserved by Mark Patton. Any use of my images without my express written consent is forbidden!
I love the mourning doves. They are gentle little souls, never aggressive at the feeders. They mate for life, so I usually see them in pairs. This one's mate was sitting on a nearby branch.
An Australian Pelican - Pelecanus conspicillatus - preening its feathers while swimming in a fresh water lagoon in Central Queensland, Australia. Photo CHRIS ISON.
It was reported that there were many young Green Herons that had fledged at Salmon Creek in Bodega Bay. It took me a lot of searching before I spotted one up in the cedar trees 'preening' then soon found others nearby.
I never did see the adults that I'm sure were still feeding them.
A unique opportunity to witness and capture this sandhill crane using its bill to arrange and preen its feathers
Another scanned slide (see ramble in previous upload). This would have been quite an image, I think, if I'd got the head of the gentoo penguin properly sharp!
Another shot from the stunning Stromness Bay, South Georgia. Gentoo penguin in the foreground, with two bokeh king penguins behind.
Upland Sandpiper is a characteristic species of New World grasslands, breeding in North America in such habitats from the eastern and central United States through the Canadian prairie provinces and up into the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Alaska. The wintering grounds are in southcentral South America. This individual near Chaplin, Saskatchewan, Canada, was engaged in some preening with a foot — an essential activity to keep the feathers in good shape, especially important considering how far these birds fly each year.
Female or juvenile
St James's Park, Central London
Preening is a maintenance behaviour of birds that use their beaks to position feathers, interlock feather barbules that have become separated, clean plumage, and keep ectoparasites in check.
Feathers contribute significantly to a bird's insulation, waterproofing and aerodynamic flight, and so are vital to its survival.
Because of this, birds spend considerable time each day maintaining their feathers, primarily through preening. Several actions make up preening behaviour.
Birds fluff up and shake their feathers, which helps to "rezip" feather barbules that have become unhooked.
Using their beaks, they gather preen oil from a gland at the base of their tail and distribute this oil through their feathers. They draw each contour feather through their bill, nibbling it from base to tip.