Presentation description

Grooming behavior helps birds care for their feathers. The amount of time that birds spend grooming changes throughout the year. One factor thought to influence grooming time is molt. During molt, grooming helps remove the protective sheaths that surround newly growing feathers. We conducted an eight-month study of wild caught feral Rock Pigeons (Columba livia) to quantify grooming time during the molt cycle. We found that pigeons more than double their grooming time during peak molt.