Ask Kenn: How Do Birds Keep Themselves Clean?

Who's Kenn? Simply put, Kenn is a national treasure. A renowned birder, author, and conservationist, Kenn Kaufman has spent his life dedicated to observing birds, reading about birds, writing about birds, and sharing the world of birds with others. With all that birdy knowledge in his brain, he also acts as the field editor for Audubon magazine. So, whenever we have a bird question stumping us around the office, we just ask Kenn. And now you can, too! If you have a bird or birding question you'd like Kenn to answer, leave them on Facebook or send us an email. Maybe next month you'll get the kind of thorough, thoughtful, and even humorous response from Kenn we've grown so fond of over the years. —The Editors 

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Question: How do birds clean themselves? Do they all takes baths—and why do some birds take dust baths? 

KK: For birds, keeping their plumage clean isn’t about good looks or vanity—it’s essential to their health. Feathers are marvelous structures, strong and lightweight, protecting birds from the elements and making flight possible, but they do require regular care.

Most birds spend a lot of time preening: running feathers through their bills, from base to tip, as if they were combing their plumage. Sometimes this activity occupies more than 10 percent of their waking hours. Preening smooths and aligns the feathers and helps clean them by removing some dirt, debris, or tiny parasites. But for enhanced cleaning, birds take frequent baths—in water, or sometimes in dust instead. 

There are many variations on this theme. A hawk may simply stand in the water for several minutes without much motion, while warblers, chickadees, and other small songbirds may dart in and out again repeatedly. Hummingbirds may bathe in rainwater that collects on top of leaves, or hover and dip to the surface of a secluded stream. Highly aerial birds like swallows and swifts usually bathe on the wing, gliding down to splash repeatedly on a pond or lake. Some swallows will also bathe in rain by perching in the open and pointing their bills straight up; Mourning Doves and some other birds will do the same thing.  

Bathing is a vigorous ritual for robins and other midsize songbirds. Standing in shallow water, the bird fluffs out its feathers and dips its head and chest under the surface in a quick motion while flapping its wings, splashing water up over its back. It may repeat this until its feathers are soaked and bedraggled; then it hops out to an open spot or flutters wetly up to a nearby perch, where it will preen the liquid out until its plumage is smooth and orderly again. 

Although it might seem like the opposite of getting clean, birds also take dust baths. After hollowing out a slight depression in fine, dry soil, the bird wallows and flaps its wings in the dust, in motions similar to those of water bathing. As the bird then preens the dust out of its plumage, it also removes grease, feather debris, and possibly small parasites. Dust bathing is common among many birds, including doves, quail, and especially House Sparrows, which regularly take dust baths even when water is available nearby. They will even follow a water bath with a dust bath.

Many birds also sunbathe. On chilly mornings, spreading wings to the sun can simply be a way to warm up. But on hot days, they may adopt an extreme sunbathing posture, rolling to one side while spreading out one wing and lying motionless for a few minutes. They’re not doing it to work on their tans. Research suggests that direct exposure to the sun may kill feather lice and other ectoparasites, or at least force them to move around so that they might be more easily preened out of the plumage. 

A novel approach to cleanliness, especially in songbirds, is “anting.” A bird on the ground spreads out one or both wings, then picks up an ant and rubs it along the feathers, repeating the action over and over with a series of ants. (Sometimes other insects or millipedes are substituted for ants.) Formic acid from the crushed ants may help to control mites, lice, fungi, or bacteria, but this hasn’t been proven. Regardless, this odd behavior has been observed in hundreds of bird species worldwide, so it must serve some purpose.

This story originally ran in the Spring 2025 issue. To receive our print magazine, become a member by making a donation today.