Hi Dave,
Yes, I've seen this--quite a lot, actually.
I have 2 big Photinias at the west edge of my deck. When things are on the dry
side, as they are now in this area, birds often bathe in whatever amount of
water they can find. If there's dew on the Photinia leaves, or even just a bit
of a puddle on my deck railing, birds will take advantage of it to bathe.
However, I've never seen a Northern Parula--which I don't see in my yard--doing
this. Thanks for sharing!
Sincerely,
Marlene
In a message dated 9/30/2017 11:52:50 AM US Eastern Standard Time,
va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
I wonder if anyone has ever witnessed a bird bathing on either a single or
compound leaf. Today I lead a trip at Paradise Creek Nature Park in
Portsmouth, VA. While scouting at around 7 am (everything was drenched with
dew), I looked up and saw from under a large leaf what I thought was a
butterfly caught on a leaf. I could see and hear the fluttering. It turns
out whatever it was had a beak and a tail. It was a N. Parula taking a
bath! I caught the bird with my binocs as it left, and the bird, too, was
drenched with dew. It had clearly been bathing. I've now added this to my
mental list of interesting things I've seen birds do.
Dave Gibson, Chesapeake, VA
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