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Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Happy Bath----A Male Oriental Magpie Robin

The Oriental Magpie Robin is a common resident in Hong Kong.  A couple of days ago, I saw a male bird enjoying a bath in a small pond.  I thought he looked very cute.


The sun was very hot that day. The Oriental Magpie Robin came to a small pond to cool himself down.


He “jumped” in the water within seconds,


and had a big splash around!









When he was satisfied with the wash, he found a sunny spot to enjoy a sunbath.


I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw this picture as I had caught the occurrence of the Nictitating membrane on camera!

The Nictitating membrane is a translucent inner eyelid in birds which moves across the eye to protect it when underwater. I have read about it before but this is the first time I have actually seen it.  


3 comments:

Giga said...

Z pewnością bym bardzo szczęśliwy,że mógł się ochłodzić. Był tak zajęty kąpielą, ze nawet Twoja obecność w pobliżu mu nie przeszkadzała. Widziałam kiedyś ptaka z okiem jak na Twoim ostatnim zdjęciu i myślałam, ze mu się coś stało, a teraz już wiem, ze to wewnętrzna powieka. Dziękuje i pozdrawiam z Polski.

Giga said...

:-) zapomniałam dodać , ze zdjęcia są oczywiście śliczne. Jeszcze raz pozdrawiam

john said...

A great series of photos. I became very familiar with these birds on my trips to Southeast Asia. Wonderful birds.