I spotted a Kingfisher yesterday, about 200 meters away from our garden, perched in a a tree, having its sunbath. From the view of it through the camera lens that its body was wet.
During the next thirty five minutes, till it flew away, I watched part of its grooming exercise.
The steps involved, drying the body in the sunshine, preening to disentangles feathers, searching ectoparasites over the plumage, rubbing the beaks against the body, inspecting the feet, and spreading the feathers... I noticed this Kingfisher repeating this cycle a few times in the same order. Its orderly preparation for the flight of the day was interesting to watch.
When I returned to read about the bathing ritual form a few on line sites of zoological information, I found that a lot is known about the bathing practices of the Kingfisher. That helped me to recall seeing the dip bath of the Kingfishers, although I do not have it photographed as yet.
The king fisher might have been there at its perch, for a while before I spotted it. To spend a forty five minutes or more attending to its body to remain flight ready sparked an interest in me to look into its flight habits. They are known to be fast, cover short flight distances at one stretch and are brisk to dip into water, when sighting movement of a fish in water. The feathers have a protective coating to keep it away from being soaked, while dipping into water to fetch a fish to feed on.
I wonder Kingfisher is a prototype for humans for healthy living. Its daily attention to its body and staying flight ready is a message for humans, who live indulgently with least attention to the body. About fifty percent of men and women in the third decade of life end up being obese, which then make them vulnerable to non communicable diseases.
We live our life in our body. Our body is our home. I remember I had early signs of exercise induced breathlessness in my early fifties and needed attention to stay aware of the risk for coronary heart disease. I needed a coronary surgical care 12 years later. Looking back, between forty-five and fifty-five years of age I lived working 16 hours, six days a week, ignoring any form of daily rhythm of body relaxing exercises.
As I turn back to those years, I find that a respectful and dutiful attitude towards the wellness of the body, got subsumed by the thrill of overworking to draw fulfilment from work. It was a disorderly way of living.
I wish I was a bird watcher then!
Ever since I took more interest in watching bird behaviour in the last fifteen years, I find the habits of birds giving some messages about attentive living!
Live well and feel well- that is a message birds leave with me now!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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