Dust Baths

The photo above (by Rajesh Kalra) shows a house sparrow in the throes of a dust bath. By rolling, wiggling, and scooping up dust with its wings, the bird covers itself with dust, then shakes vigorously to fling the dust in all directions. You can see a dust bathing bird in action here. It’s believed that dust bathing helps to clean dirt and excess oil from feathers and skin, and to suppress parasites. Without this kind of maintenance the bird’s health would suffer and flight efficiency would decline. Dust bathing is a common behavior in many birds.

Once the bath is finished and the bird is gone, the evidence remains in the form of body-sized hollows. Dust baths sometimes appear as roughly circular cleared spaces surrounded by vegetation, as in the photo below. The diameter of the sandy hollow (15 inches) strongly suggests turkey.

Sometimes feathers provide definitive evidence of who the dust bather was. The dust bath in the next photo is ornamented with a few body feathers belonging to a ruffed grouse. There’s also a partial track below the feather. At roughly 8 inches across, this dust bath was the right size for a grouse. The bird had chosen an inactive ant mound, and the finely processed soil was a perfect medium for a good cleansing thrash.

In the next photo you see a dust bath that holds definitive evidence of the bather. A turkey tail feather lies on the lower left side, and a clear track sits in the center. Finding tracks as good as this one is unusual, because they are generally obscured as the bird shakes the soil off. The whole area was large, about three feet across, but the hollow made by the turkey’s body was about 18 inches across.

Some bathing spots don’t seem very enticing. The grouse dust bath shown below was located in a gravel road and couldn’t have been very comfortable. The hard surface must have yielded very little dust, so I wonder how much benefit the bird’s effort yielded. Maybe it was the best site the grouse could find.

Birds aren’t the only creatures that take dust baths. Large herbivores such as bison and elk often roll and wiggle in dusty spots, and small rodents are frequent dust bathers. Rabbits and cottontails also enjoy an occasional roll in the dirt. The next photo shows a snowshoe hare dust bath. Rear tracks show as sets of claw marks on the left and indistinct shapes on the right.

Another mammal that likes to roll in sand or soil is the otter. The animal that made the roll shown in the photo below had just come out of the water, and part of its motivation was to dry its fur. The sand bath also probably helped to clean the otter’s fur and remove excess oil. You can see flattened areas where the sand was pressed down by the otter’s body, and there are some tail marks on the left. The disorganized collection of tracks in the center is interesting. It looks to me like the animal shook itself vigorously to throw the sand off, lifting and placing its feet several times in the process. It then proceeded on its way toward the top of the frame.

Dry, loose substrates are preferred for dust bathing. Dusty roads or trails, sandy deposits, fine humus, and decomposed logs are likely places to find dust baths. Small birds and mammals often choose hidden locations for their hygienic activities. Turkeys usually establish dust baths in open sites where escape is not hindered by obstacles. But wherever you find them, you should check out any strangely hollowed or cleared spots you come upon. You might have found the location of a seldom seen part of a wild creature’s life.