Abstract
RECENT communications to British Birds have directed attention to the widespread occurrence of the habit of sun-bathing among birds. The question has been raised "whether irradiation of the skin, with its consequent effect of vitamin D production, could take place through sun-bathing". Prof. W. C. Wynne-Edwards has stated that direct irradiation of the skin is usually impossible in both birds and mammals because of their thick coats. From observations lasting over sixteen years, however, Noble Rollin has collected photographs and information which lead him to the belief that irradiation of the skin takes place among jackdaws, chaffinches, blackbirds, hedge-sparrows and house-martins, although no evidence of sun-bathing has been observed among gulls and wading birds (British Birds, 41, No. 10 ; October 1948).
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Sun-Bathing by Birds. Nature 162, 843 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162843c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162843c0