Aug 26 2009
Why do birds take dust baths?
Someone asked me this question at the bus stop the other day. I’m not surprised it came up because the ubiquitous city birds - house sparrows – are champions of dust baths. They’re the ones who prompted the question.
House sparrows prefer very fine dust and will flap up a storm when they find a patch of it. They dig a hollow with their feet, push their bellies into the dust and toss it under their wings and over their backs as if it was water. Their goal is to get the dust into their feathers and all the way down to their skin. When they’re suitably coated they shake off the dust and preen it away until their feathers are in good condition again.
Why go to this trouble? Dust smothers skin and feather parasites and absorbs excess oil that’s removed as the dust is preened away. Did you know you can clean your hair using powder? It’s the same idea.
House sparrows take dust baths even when water is available. Maybe the first house sparrow came from a desert climate. After all, their Paleolithic fossils have been found in Ouum-Qatafa Cave in Israel. If they can clean with dust and save water for drinking, why not?
This summer we’ve had so much rain the house sparrows must be hard pressed to find any dry dirt. They might have to use my bird bath after all.
(photo of a house sparrow taking a dust bath by Vishnevskiy Vasily via Shutterstock)
Thanks for this explanation! I’ve never seen the sparrows do this before until today.
The past couple of days I have been weeding my long-neglected yard. This afternoon, I came home after running an errand to find six sparrows enjoying dirt baths, each small bird sitting in its own little depression of soil once inhabited by a weed. The birds vigorously flapped their wings and kicked up quite a dust cloud, chirping in joy as they did so. A seventh bird flew in to join the group, but tried to oust one of the bathers out of its bath. The two birds scuffled for a while, with wings beating frantically amidst loud chirping. The interloper was rebuffed, and found a dirt depression of its own. Peace was restored and the joyous bathing resumed.
I was standing at my kitchen sink today washing dishes and noticed a lone sparrow seemingly digging a depression into some loose soil under a small magnolia tree by my patio. There were other sparrows around but, this little guy was taking the lead with his task. Then I watched him flapping about in the depression he made and kicking up the dust. I had never seen that before until today! So naturally I had to google to find out what and why he was doing that. Thank you for your explanation. I’ve noticed that the other sparrows are following suit now as well. It makes for something interesting to look at whilst I do the dishes. Thanks!
Today, I went to the beach with my children. I found
a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and
screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her
ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic
but I had to tell someone!