The Lincolnshire Bird Club

This afternoon we had a thunder shower which turned into a hailstorm for about ten minutes. There were two woodpigeons sitting on our garden boundary fence. When it began to hail they rolled slightly over to one side and raised the uppermost wing exposing the flank, axillaries and underwing to the falling hailstones, fanning their tails at the same time. They did this with with both wings for , perhaps, 30 seconds at a time as long as the hail fell. Once the hail reverted to rain they settled back to a normal perched position with closed wings and began preening their neck and breast feathers.

Anyone seen similar or able to provide an explanation of this behaviour?

John

Hi John

Pigeons like to shower in rain so I presume the instinct to do so was triggered by the hail as it fell. It may be coincidence that they stopped when the hail stopped and the rain started, but they must have thought
they were already wet enough. They would not shower for too long a period to stop their feathers from becoming waterlogged and then not being able to flee any perceived threat.

Russell

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