Rain has been in the news a lot lately, and in some areas of the United States it has rained too much and too quickly causing life threatening flash flooding. Here in Florida, things had been pretty dry up until the past month or so. Since then, we’ve had a few really heavy rains, but for the most part it has been our usual pattern of thunderstorms that last a fairly short time and then the sun comes out again. When I was outside watching my birds at the feeding station last week, we kept getting intermittent light rain, and the birds seemed to be enjoying it. Some of them just kept on eating, but quite a few of them seemed to use it as a bathing and preening opportunity. Momma cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) was one of those. She sat in a tree and let herself get a little wet in the light rain. Then she fluffed herself, did some preening, and fluffed herself again. There were also some chickadees and several tufted titmice who engaged in the same activity. Preening and feather care are very important to birds. Healthy, clean feathers are necessary for flight, temperature regulation, water proofing, and protection among many other things and without them most birds would not last long. A bit of water just makes the task a little easier.