Last Friday, 9 August 2019, Erika and I watched a Pacific-slope Flycatcher
bathe in our Olympia garden birdbath. The bird's bathing strategy was
unlike anything I have seen before. From a perch on a nearby garden
trellis, the flycatcher made repeated dives into the center of the
birdbath. After belly-flopping into the water, the bird did not dally, but
returned to its perch. There the bird shook off the water and preened, only
to repeat the performance several times. Lowther et al. in The Birds of
North America (2016) write that, in the ornithological literature, bathing
has not been described for Western Flycatchers. See my blog for a link to
this citation and also a photograph of the bird:
https://dantallmansbirdblog.blogspot.com.

--
Dan or Erika Tallman
Olympia, Washington
danerika at gmail.com

http://dantallmansbirdblog.blogspot.com

".... the best shod travel with wet feet...Beware of all enterprises that
require new clothes ...."-;H. D. Thoreau
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