Preening as Group Therapy

With four birds in my home, a lot of preening gets done every day. I don't know how many feathers any of my parrots have individually, but an interesting factoid I found was that a bird may have as few as over 900 feathers (Ruby hummingbird) or as many as 25,000 (whistling swan in winter). Any way you look at it, that's a lot of feathers to care for.

Preening is what takes care of the feathers, besides taking a bath - which my birds do regularly. Even after bathing, preening is necessary to get the feathers properly groomed and maintained; to add oil to the feathers to keep them waterproof and insulated. In the wild, it also helps to remove parasites and debris. (You can see tiny bits of down and keratin here on Sam's head.)

And when birds are molting seasonally, it helps to remove the keratin sheathes that encase the new feathers. I've also read that it helps to strengthen relationships. That makes a lot of sense.


Whenever my birds preen, it is often "contagious" - that is, when one bird begins, usually everyone else follows suit. Group preening. It is one of the most soothing activities I've ever witnessed. Everybody quiets down to the focussed task of preening, and it can last for many minutes. I think it must be very important socially and emotionally for birds to preen in a group. Maybe it's the original group therapy. After all, birds have been around a lot longer than we have.

One of the unexpected side benefits to me is that whenever this preening business happens and I'm present, I get caught up in the quiet, almost meditative atmosphere. When everybody has finished with a nice stretch, I sigh and collect myself for the next task ahead. Ahhh....