Often times when photographing birds one never knows what is going to happen. Recently while visiting La Salle Park in Burlington Ontario I observed something I had not witnessed before – swan bathing upside down.
NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.
We’ve all seen birds bathing before. They typically fluff up their feathers while in the water and beat their wings furiously sending water splashing up over themselves. This is often followed by vigorous wing flapping. I had observed swans exhibiting this same type of behaviour in the past.
What I had never seen before was a swan rolling over onto its back, sticking its head and neck completely under the water, then rotating its legs up in the air as if riding an invisible bicycle.
It was somewhat comical watching their large, webbed fleet paddling up in the air. After a few seconds the various birds would roll over in the water.
They would continue with their bathing ritual by smacking the surface of the water with their wings, then rising up out of the water by beating their wings rapidly.
This is likely quite common swan bathing behaviour, but something I had not witnessed in the past. It was unusually warm for a Canadian February afternoon with the temperature at a record-setting level of about 16 Celsius which may help to explain their behaviour.
Regardless of the cause, I was thrilled to have been treated to this visual display.
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I observed this behavior in a “wedge” of swans numbering around 30 adults and cygnets on Lake Chautauqua, NY, about an hour ago. I encountered this site while researching something I hadn’t seen before. Weather here has been unseasonably warm for the last 10 days. It’s overcast right now, but still and warm at around 38 degrees. It appeared to me that the birds were frolicking. Lots of mock attacks that looked like kids paying tag. Then came a great fluffing of feathers and wing spreading. Soon, there came a lot of preening and grooming and, yes, barrel rolling and foot flailing! These swans are bathing themselves, as they must, in order to spread waterproofing oil from the uropygial glad located near the tail throughout their feathers manually, with lots of neck reaching and gyrating of the body. Santa Claus brought me an awesome pair of Diamondback field glasses, and I feel like the swans are performing in my front yard just for me, haha. I’m seeing things I’ve never been able to bring into focus before. It is awesome.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and adding to the discussion.
Tom
a large portion of them in our general vicinity either. There has been one at La Salle Park sporadically finished the past number of week which is the reason it was such a treat to snatch some fast pictures.
Having a fabulous time at a debilitated fledgling’s cost is not some tea either. I will explore this conduct further to perceive what I can discover.
https://www.theswansanctuary.org.uk/lead-poisoning-in-swans/
Hi Tord,
I did not observe any of the physical symptoms in the reference material you posted with the birds I observed at La Salle Park. All of the birds appeared robust and healthy that were exhibiting this behaviour. They did not appear to roll over from any kind of lack of balance. The rolling over was only for about 2 seconds at a time, after which the birds would right themselves and then exhibit typical bathing behaviour with vigorous flapping of their wings and beating the surface of the water. Then they would flap vigorously raising their bodies partially out of the water. Since it was a very unusually warm day for February I interpreted their behaviour to be an attempt to rid themselves of parasites in their back feathers.
I have been back to La Salle Park a number of times and spoken to many other photographers as well as volunteers and no one has ever mentioned any kind of lead poisoning or any of the birds being sick. Almost all of the adult birds are tagged and numbered so it would be very easy to track this type of issue.
I will certainly ask one of the volunteers the next time that I see one at La Salle Park. Obviously there was no attempt on my part to poke fun at birds that may be sick. I will investigate this further. Thank you for the information.
Tom
We’ve seen mute swans do this, and later learned that the one we saw died of lead poisoning (his entire family, and a family of Canadian geese, suffered the same fate), as the ingested lead affects their whole being, not least the sense of balance.
It can be cured, in humans, by hospital care, over a long period, thus not available to wild birds.
Very common reason for deaths among ducks, and swans. These poor birds had accidentally eaten lead-enriched charcoal, a result of hobos stealing cables and then at night they burn off the plastic on the cables, a process that melts the inner lead sheeting on the cables as well, and the lead soaks into the ground, and into the wood charcoal used to heat-up the cables, and birds with an upset tummy naturally like to eat charcoal, and that way ingest the lead, which makes them more ill, leading them eating more poisonous charcoal.
So having fun at sick birds is not my cup of tea.
Hi Tord,
Having fun at a sick bird’s expense is not my cup of tea either. I will investigate this behaviour further to see what I can find out.
Tom
Those made me smile! That must have been surprising. I don’t remember ever seeing a bird bathe upside down before. I have seen some ducks flip over while trying to reach down and grab some water weeds growing near the bottom of pond.
Hi Joni,
It made me smile too! I ended up watching a number of different swans doing this same behaviour for well over an hour. I had never seen anything like it before.
Tom
Great shots. Our only white swans here in Australia are located at Northam Western Australia . My mate and I had the good fortune to photograph six of the eight birds that remain. Eighty birds were imported from England about 1895. Only these eight remain.
Hi Tom,
Thanks for sharing your experience with the white swans of Australia. I went online and discovered that one of the only places they reside is on the banks of the Avon River.
Tom