![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/yellow-warbler-1092b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"yellow-warbler-1092b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThere’s a relationship between sunning behavior in birds and parasite management.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Recently I posted this photo of a Yellow Warbler doing his best Quasimodo imitation in an effort to better expose his plumage to sunlight. The light and resulting heat from this behavior (referred to as sunning) encourages parasites, feather lice in particular, to move to more accessible areas so the bird can more adequately deal with them during preening.<\/p>\n The following photos document the preening behavior he was preparing for. Almost by definition (because of the contorted poses) I don’t have a catch light in the eye in some of them but since this series is documentary in nature I’m not too concerned about it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n After sunning for a few moments he began to dig for the presumed lice and at first he did so right at the base of the feathers he had raised on his back.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Then he branched out to other nearby areas at the base of his tail – first the right side…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n and then the left. Some of these shots demonstrate one of several reasons birds have such flexible necks. Just imagine a fish trying to do this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n At times he simply couldn’t resist taking a brief break in his preening routine for a musical singing interlude. After all, it is springtime and breeding season.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/6400, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n After working over his right side he did a quick 180 to expose his left side to the sun. Most of the time he was turned further to his right than this to get even better sun exposure but in those shots I didn’t have a very good look at his eye.<\/p>\n But before he did much serious preening on his left side he flew off. And yes, I missed the takeoff shot. I had plenty of shutter speed for it but once again my reflexes weren’t up to the challenge.<\/p>\n I realize that most of my readers love birds and have watched them preening many times so these photos are nothing new. But I hope it was interesting to see them in the context of sunning and parasite management.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There’s a relationship between sunning behavior in birds and parasite management.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/yellow-warbler-1103-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"yellow-warbler-1103-ron-dudley\\"")
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