Sunbathing dunnock

Incubating eggs on a hot day can be exhausting work, and itchy too if your feathers are full of small parasites. This dunnock has been sunbathing every afternoon lately on this old concrete slab in the garden, using the sun's rays to rid itself of tormenting feather parasites.

While it sits there it rolls from side to side, exposing each side of its chest to the sun's rays, occasionally lifting a wing too. During the whole process it sometimes settles down and goes into a trance-like state.

During its sunbathing sessions it doesn't tolerate competitors for its prime position in the sun.

Eventually, after about ten minutes, it struggles back to its feet, panting in the heat, then goes into a long session of preening to put its plumage back in shape. 

I often see blackbirds do something similar in the garden, but this is the first time I've watched dunnocks engaged in this kind of behaviour. Click here for an account of similar behaviour in blackbirds.

Vulnerable

We came across this sunbathing blackbird yesterday at Smardale Gill NNR in Cumbria, where it was in a trance-like state with wings and tail fanned out. This is the moment when it realised we were there and struggled to its feet, brain still befuddled by the heat, wings drooping, feathers still fluffed out. If I'd wanted to I could have reached out and grabbed it. There must be a serious purpose for birds sunbathing like this, as it leaves them very vulnerable to predators. Using the sun's heat and UV to reduce feather parasite load is supposed to be the reason why they do it.

This young rabbit was vulnerable too, apparently believing that it was covered in a furry invisibility cloak as it peered at us through the grasses without making any effort to run.