There is a pair of male birds in this exhibit and they are pretty cute. They sit together in the same spot, pressed up against one another. They were not happy when I was cleaning their exhibit but afterward, I thought I'd offer them a shower if they wanted one. The idea is to spray the hose in one spot so if the bird is interested, he will go in the mist and bathe. If not, he won't be annoyed or afraid of the water. I tried this, putting the stream nearby where the two birds were sitting, but, as usual, they did not react. These birds are stoic, as a coworker put it, in that, they tend to sit very still and sleep all day. I believe they are nocturnal. Also, if they do notice you and are awake, they will give you quite a glare. Anyway, I had the hose running and decided to purposely spray them a bit so that they knew I was offering a shower. I did so and they didn't have much of a reaction. I decided to be a little bit more agressive and just put the mist on them so that if they wanted to react, they would. Slowly, I noticed that they were fluffing their feathers, and more importantly, not panicking. I was happy to notice that they were beginning to fluff their feathers and even rub their beak on the branch. Soon, the two birds were spreading their wings in the water. I began laughing when one of the birds spread out both of his wings, they hung down below the perch, and put his head down with the feathers on his back ruffled up. He was practically lying down in the mist. I had never seen these birds so happy. Or at least, I had never seen this much reaction out of them. I enjoyed showering them and I think that they enjoyed it thoroughly.
Another thing I noticed today, I have noticed it before as well, when I shower certain birds, they react by first scratching their beak and/or rubbing their beak on the perch. For example, just today, I showered the rhinocerous hornbills, the bearded barbet, the red billed toucan, and the tawny frogmouths. Each of these birds, as they are first misted, reacts by stretching their foot behind their wing to scratch at their beak, or by taking their beak and rubbing it on the side on a branch. Even the tawny frogmouths, who have significantly less prominant beaks than the other birds mentioned, rubbed their beaks on the branch as one of their first reactions. I wonder if maybe this has developed because the beak is a very important part of the birds life and it is priority when it comes to being clean. Well, to take that further, I guess feathers are top priority, but when water is involved, the birds may see it as an opportunity to clean the thing they use to maintain their feathers: the beak. I find it interesting that this happens again and again.
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