Preening
A barn swallow preens one of his long wing feathers by dragging it through his bill. The action was so fast that I didn’t realize he had a single feather pulled out until I got home and saw the picture. While he cleaned his wings, there was one part that didn’t get cleaned (and you can see it in the picture): there’s a bit of dried mud on the beak itself.
Tags: barn swallow, birds, Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, Washington