The “raised wing” sunbathing display is employed by three species of Australian pigeons that I know well, Crested Pigeon, Peaceful Dove and Bar-shouldered Dove; undoubtedly there are more.
For the Crested Pigeon, a brief reference to it is made in HANZAB pointing to Frith’s Pigeons and Doves of Australia where it is illustrated on page 241.
I’ve seen it most often during a light rain shower but it also occurs when the sun is warm during cooler weather. Bar-shouldered Doves do this frequently in our back yard at Beerwah in Qld during summer.
The brief flicking up of the wing described by Stephen Ambrose may be some other behaviour but during the “sunbathing sessions” I see here at home birds sometimes raise the wing briefly, sometimes several times almost as if they can’t quite get comfortable. There are pictures of Bar-shouldered Doves sunbathing on my website. ===============================
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