preen

Updates shared on social media show them eating regularly, growing stronger and starting to move their wings and preen their feathers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026

These days, pastel and fluorescent birds groom, preen and bicker in enclosures behind the home.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026

Maybe it’s happiest tucked into a cast-iron skillet, going golden and jammy while the showier types preen in their baskets.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2025

It might be a bank holiday in the UK, but for the designers, publicists and PAs, it'll be an extraordinarily busy day as they preen and prepare their stars to walk the grand staircase.

From BBC ● May 4, 2025

Through the lens Axel watches the adult preen the baby, touching it with his beak.

From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers

Torelli is a great physical comic; even in wrist restraints, she preens.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2024

He smiles and dances and points and preens, turning each field-goal attempt into a telenovela.

From New York Times ● Dec. 14, 2021

A given culture typically preens itself into believing that its foodways, family structure and political system are the truly logical ones.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 1, 2019

It swims and preens and eats, sure, but it will never migrate over the Korean Peninsula, or use its amazing plumage to flag down a mate as it would in the wild.

From Slate ● Feb. 11, 2019

He preens on the railing, raising his beak majestically, fluffing his feathers.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

He preened, grabbed his oversized scissors and opened his mouth to boast, but no one could hear a single word over the deafening roar of Marine One’s idling engines.

From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026

Sporting a flipped bouffant hairstyle and a floral wiggle dress that harked back to the 1967 film “Valley of the Dolls,” she’s not just immaculately preened for her inaugural L.A.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2023

The performances viewers see are not mimed to a studio recording that was made in advance and preened to perfection with editing.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2021

Before the premiere, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Hardwick preened for photographs but entertained questions only from television reporters.

From New York Times ● Aug. 21, 2019

He took a long wing feather into his beak and slowly preened himself.

From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis

As in most of the director’s movies, the characters behave like preening betta fish.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

In a moment with Colin Farrell as his preening son, Duvall is shocked and disappointed by how things are being handled.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026

But it’s tricky to maintain a balance between eliciting sympathy for the central duo and making sport of them, in all their preening garishness.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2025

Mr. Dirden speaks with a majestic orotundity that evokes a preacher carrying around an invisible pulpit, and exudes a preening pomposity and the requisite vicious abusiveness toward Lucky.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2025

“Indeed we have,” said Hallgrimsson, and if Coram had had to describe his expression, he would have said that the scholar was preening himself just a little.

From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman