View allAll Photos Tagged preening
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) female. The Preen Gland
The uropygial gland, informally known as the preen gland or the oil gland, is subacious gland possessed by the majority of birds. It is located dorsally at the base of the tail and is greatly variable in both shape and size. In some species, the opening of the gland has a small tuft of feathers to provide a wick for the preen oil. A bird will typically transfer preen oil to its body during preening by rubbing its beak and head against the gland opening and then rubbing the accumulated oil on the feathers of the body and wings, and on the skin of the feet and legs. Wildwood lake Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
This male SUTA has just molted and although he's not fully feathered, he's brilliant. Molting birds do a lot of preening. I liked the shadows of his wing feathers across his body in this pose in the dappled sunlight. Our beautiful world, pass it on.
Mundane subject but I like to watch these as they carefully preen their feathers. Taken this morning (29.1.17) in the sunshine
A male Svalbard rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta hyperborea), that I watched resting and preening for one hour, together with a group of photographers on the only foggy day I had on my Svalbard trip last summer. A nice nature experience!
(Svalbardrype-hann/stegg, in Norwegian)
My album of images from Svalbard here.
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Olympus E-M10
LUMIX G VARIO 100-300/F4.0-5.6
Aperture Æ’/5.4
Focal length 258.0 mm
Shutter 1/1000
ISO 800
Another day and another trip to Farmoor Reservoir. Hopefully to photograph Great Crested Grebes and Little Grebes.
The weather this time was better than before.
This male Common Mallard was spend its time Preening to look good.
The Mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species that is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks.
The bird on the left is possibly a male as it is bigger and the other a female slightly smaller. While the plumage is black, the flight feathers, which are only visible when it is flying, are white in colour.
There's a gang of noisy Lorikeets calling from the trees behind them!
I saw these at a large waterway in a park in Logan, Brisbane.
{The black swan is a large waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic conditions. Black swans are large birds with mostly black plumage and red bills
.Black swans were first seen by Europeans in 1697, when Willem de Vlamingh's expedition explored the Swan River, Western Australia. Wikipedia
A female Bufflehead preens in golden light. East Lawther Drive, White Rock park, Dallas, Texas, 16 January 2025
WOOD STORK, GREAT WHITE EGRET, ROSEATTE SPOONBILL
J D 'DING' DARLING WILDLIFE RESERVE
SANIBEL FLORIDA