Doves

Airing Out Those Feathers

White-winged doves have a habit of raising one wing up and leaving it there for awhile. Sometimes they do it when another bird is vigorously splashing water everywhere so the dove gets a shower. Other times they do it just to let the sun shine of the under feathers. I could not find a lot of information on this behavior but my guess is that it helps get rid of bird mites either with water washing them off or the sun killing them. I've seen the behavior both in the bird bath and no where near a bird bath.
White-winged dove (Zenaida asiatica)

white wing dovedovezenaida asiaticacolorfulbirdbathred eyesgarland texasWhitewinged dovewingsbathingsun bathingwet feathers