Considering other features, it is more closely related to plovers than snipes. Resting birds sometimes spread their wings horizontally or vertically to full span. It is thought that birds try to tidy piled feathers by stretching their wings. For example, owls about to take wing from their nests flap several times as if warming up. Bathing Many birds bathe often to keep their feathers clean.
Starlings sometimes gather at a riverside and bathe in groups of hundreds.
Seeing hundreds of birds splashing water around, you can immediately know even from a distance that starlings are bathing there. If you pay attention to what birds are doing when it starts raining, you may see some interesting behavior. For example, you may have noticed that crows perched on an electric-power cable stay still, spreading their wings partially. In this case, they are considered to be bathing by exposing their bodies to the rain. Some species that live in arid regions resort to sand bathing.