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View Full Version : GBH. What's this doing?



Grady Weed
02-24-2009, 12:30 PM
Is it drying off, cooling down, or is it flashing me? :)

John Chardine
02-24-2009, 04:00 PM
Grady- this is classic sunning posture. An early thread in this forum goes over the reason birds do this. In brief, one theory is that they are raising the plumage temperature to point that ectoparasites such as feather lice are killed.

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14879

Grady Weed
02-24-2009, 04:42 PM
Thanks John. It was a very interesting thread you refereed me to. I clicked on all the links as well. A good read.

Fabs Forns
02-26-2009, 11:29 PM
Interestingly enough, we have seen the GBH White Morph showing the same behavior. He doesn't know that he's white and it will not raise enough temperature to kill anything.

Duane Noblick
03-18-2009, 04:59 AM
I've observed a GBH on several occasions doing this during last summer. I took it as a way of cooling off because not only was it's wings spread out (the one I observed had them spread out even more) but it was panting at the same time. The first time I saw this 'pose' after it was done it then entered a small pond and dipped it's entire body several times into the water as if it were bathing itself.