Dusting the feathers

House Sparrows, Passer domesticus

The male;





On my way home, I spotted a family of House Sparrows, Passer domesticus, busily trying to rid themself of parasites, and get a good clean.
Providing Birds with food is part of the way how we can help them. Water is just as important. Flight, and therefore clean feathers, is vital to them. It is how they can take flight to escape danger as well as, finding food, finding a mate and find the best breeding spot.
Also Birds need water to drink. Young birds in the nest get their liquid from the food brought in by their parents. Mostly in the shape of Insect larvae, which as well as fluid, contains bags of protein.
People still ask me about feeding birds in summer. The "But Birds will get lazy" idea is still doing the rounds, apparently. Instinctively, Birds, (and many other animals) will search high and low to find live food for the chicks. The comprehension that with this protein-packed the chicks will grow faster than by feeding on protein-rich seeds.
The reason I feed them in summer, is so that the parents, after foraging from Sunrise, to provide for their brood, they can get a quick feed for themselves. They are ravished at the end of the day, and would have no energy left at all to get some food for themselves.

With the Birds moving about constantly, getting real sharp pictures wasn't easy. But my, Fun they were having definitely. They'd fly up and settle elsewhere, in a different formation. When I was about 3 metres from them, a car arrived on the scene to spoil the fun. For them as well as me.













Both the Sparrows and I were being observed from above by one of my friends, the Hooded Crow, Corvus cornix.