A hot bird

A magpie sunbathing in the garden.

Re: A hot bird

Poor magpie does look short of breath

Great picture Mart...

Re: A hot bird

I thought the magpie looked a bit distressed but I'm sure birds enjoy the heat and a sunbathe. It flew away after it had been there for a while. Then it came back and sunbathed some more (well that or different one ).

I photographed this female blackbird a couple of years ago taking in the Sun.

Re: A hot bird

Mart, I agree with Mags.
That bird looks very hot and uncomfortable, as if he needed water.
Do you have a bird bath in your garden?

Re: A hot bird

It had water available and drank some of it but still went back to spreading it's wings and soaking up the Sun. I thought it looked it looked hot and uncomfortable too but I've seen this behaviour before. The bird eventually flew up into the trees with the usual amount of energy that birds display, so I reckon it was fine. It just liked the Sun.

Edit: Type 'birds sunbathing' into a search engine and quite a bit comes up about it.

Re: A hot bird

Its call;ed Anting Mart, to do with parasites, some birds do the same with smoke doing the same job.

Re: A hot bird

If I get ants in me pants I'm going to try that

Re: A hot bird

Thanks Nom. I just came back in, looked out in the garden and the magpie is performing its Anting antics again. I suppose it could be the same bird.

Re: A hot bird

Hope you have high fences so the neighbours won't see Tess.

Re: A hot bird

They get the ants to spray formic acid into their plumage Mart, bt it could be other things as well.