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When preening, a bird (such as this red lory) draws individual feathers through its beak, realigning and re-interlocking the barbules.. Preening is a maintenance behaviour found in birds that involves the use of the beak to position feathers, interlock feather barbules that have become separated, clean plumage, and keep ectoparasites in check.
Preen may refer to: Birds. Preening, personal grooming of a bird's feathers especially by using its beak; Preen gland, also called the uropygial gland, an oil gland ...
To do that, they use the preen oil secreted by the uropygial gland, the dust of down feathers, or other means such as dust-bathing or anting. During oil spills, animal conservationists that rescue penguins sometimes dress them in knitted sweaters to stop them from preening and thereby ingesting the mineral oil, which is poisonous. Monkeys may ...
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Position of the uropygial gland, indicated on a budgerigar Uropygial gland of a blue jay. The uropygial gland, informally known as the preen gland or the oil gland, is a bilobed sebaceous gland possessed by the majority of birds used to distribute the gland's oil through the plumage by means of preening.
The practice may also act to supplement a bird's own preen oil. A third purpose may be to render the insects more palatable, by causing removal of distasteful compounds. More than 200 species of bird are known to ant. [21] "Passive anting" refers to when birds simply position themselves so as to allow insects to crawl through their plumage. [6]
A diagram of altricial and precocial bird species. Precocial species in birds and mammals are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching.
Pigeon skeleton with "plowshare"-type pygostyle (number 17) Confuciusornis sanctus with "rod"-type pygostyle and the two central tail feathers. Pygostyle describes a skeletal condition in which the final few caudal vertebrae are fused into a single ossification, supporting the tail feathers and musculature.