During our recent heat wave, my birds really loved bathing in the bird bath. But I also noticed that sometimes birds were flopping around in the loose dirt beneath my hedges. Why?
Like people, birds use bathe to remove dirt and grime from their bodies. But sometimes they become also infested with parasites such as feather mites or lice. Water won’t get rid of these parasites. However, flopping around in very fine soil coats their feathers with fine dust particles. The dust enters the breathing tubes of the parasites. Enough dust can clog the breathing tubes and kill the parasite. So in self defense, the parasite just drop off the feathers. 
Sometimes bird clean up in water, sometime in dirt.
birdsoup 
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