Strange Sparrow behaviour

[muckshifter]

Every year we see lots of small birds use the lily leaves in our pond to take a bath by choosing one of just the right size so that their weight lowers it, and the bird, to a shallow depth in the pond. Yesterday, however, I noticed something very different. A sparrow landed on the pond coping, which is about 50mm above water level, and jumped in to the icy water about 400mm from the edge. He then thrashed about in the water for a few seconds before heaving himself into the air and flying back to the coping for a good shake before departing. Anyone else seen this done?

[kiloran]

We've got 10-12 sparrows living in a big shrub in our garden, and it's common to see 4-5 of them at a time thrashing about in 3-4 inches of water in a bird bath, for up to a minute at a time. They are fearless and seem to love it, though the water is close to freezing.

--kiloran

[muckshifter]

Presumably our little sparrow either didn't notice, or didn't care, about the water being half a metre deep in our pond. In quite a few years, this is the first fearless sparrow we've seen.

[sg31]

We used to have a 2 bird baths in the garden which were much used by the local starlings, the sparrows would take dust baths on any bare soil. After a few weeks the sparrows took to sitting on the edge of the bird bath while the starlings bathed. There would be lots of spray which soaked the sparrows which they obviously enjoyed.

After a short period the sparrows would sit on the edge of the bath waiting for the sparrows to arrive. It didn't take long for one impatient sparrow to get in the shallow water and try to emulate the sparrows. By the end of the summer the sparrows were avid bathers in their own right.

The following summer nature returned to rightful order sparrows in the dust and starlings in the bird bath.