Sparrowhawk sun bathing

A Male Sparrowhawk visited the garden this afternoon spread its wings out and stuck its head right into a bush and stayed there for about 4-5 minutes.   After that it went up into a nearby tree and started to clean its feathers.

Very interesting to watch as it was so relaxed about the whole procedure.  We may have missed it having a wash in the birth bath or may be it was gaining some benefit from the plant or insects ?  - there are stories of birds (Jays are known to do this) allowing ants to walk over them to deal with parasites but in this cases there was no obvious sign of any ants.