[HN Gopher] It's OK to feed wild birds - here are some tips for ...
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It's OK to feed wild birds - here are some tips for doing it the
right way
Author : dnetesn
Score : 58 points
Date : 2024-04-22 04:47 UTC (18 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (worldsensorium.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (worldsensorium.com)
| Vicinity9635 wrote:
| None of this applies to crows. They're very happy to eat our
| rotting corpses and day old vomit. So feeding them can be an
| adventure if you try hard enough.
| sva_ wrote:
| I tried that once. I fed a bunch of crows some walnuts while
| sitting by a river, and it was fine. The next day I came back,
| I fed crows at the same spot, and soon a murder of other crows
| came and attacked the crows I just fed. Not even just lightly
| nabbing them, but hacking down on them continuously until I
| broke up the fight.
|
| Didn't try feeding any since then.
| lagniappe wrote:
| You're supposed to use McDonalds fries, and some light rock-
| throwing toward the opposing faction. Traditionally this is
| how murder-crows have been trained since at least 2013. Total
| process is a few weeks.
|
| Source: https://imgur.com/f50IZJS
| HenryBemis wrote:
| Probably territorial disputes. I bought a feeder and I'm
| hanging it right outside/below my balcony (so birds can eat
| without pooping on my balcony). I buy hulled sunflower seeds,
| 10kg, every month just for the feeder. My typical 'customers'
| are House Sparrows that I try to keep alive through the
| winter. The (three) crows on my block are cool with them, and
| let them live around here. When pigeons fly in though, or
| once we had some ducks resting and trying to feed on my
| feeder, OH BOY, the crows no-like-big-birds.
|
| Sidenote: because of the weird position of my feeder, only
| one bird can eat at-a-time. House Sparrows being smart and
| loving do the following.. one goes to my feeder and
| shoves/throws down seeds, so he/she eats straight from the
| feeder, and a bunch of others eat the seeds falling on the
| sidewalk.
| gerdesj wrote:
| Whomever came up with that nonsense about cockroaches
| inheriting the smoking remnants of the earth we leave behind
| have no idea.
|
| "If its a rook its a crow ..." Crow are mostly singletons,
| rooks are the social largish, black corvid. By social, I mean
| bird form of Peaky Blinders.
|
| In the park opposite my house there are many large, mature
| trees. Several of them are home to rival gangs of rooks.
| There are also many magpies and some jays and some crows. The
| magpies seem to spontaneously form mobs but mostly couple up
| and do small scales raids on smaller birds if they run out of
| other food or for the hell of it. Jays tend to be more
| circumspect and I rarely spot them being nasty. I suspect
| they are more like assassins.
|
| Corvids are extraordinary birds. They don't have the weaponry
| of hawks, so seemed to have developed intelligence and a
| really strong stomach instead.
|
| Mind you the seagull (herring gull) is an even larger "crow"
| with amphibious capabilities. I lived in Plymouth (Devon) for
| some years and worked on the Barbican, so dealt with a lot of
| seagulls. I never got crapped on and never had a burger or
| chips stolen from me.
|
| Wind forwards a fair few years. I'm doing an IT related job
| and am in Bristol Parkway railway station, on platform
| munching sandwiches during a lunch break. A gull swoops in
| from behind me and grabs a sarnie from my hand.
|
| The skill and precision of the steal was remarkable. I've
| also seen them glide in, slow up and briefly hover over a
| victim, drop down and grab with their beak and then fly
| vertically upwards and escape. You have to admire the sheer
| strength of these birds. They are largely designed for
| soaring and gliding. Look at the aspect ratio of their wings
| - they are long and quite thin - more like a glider than a
| fighter. I suppose their association with the sea and fishing
| has encouraged evolving strength. Pulling a fish out of the
| sea is hard work. They can furl those gliding wings for
| bursts of speed and they have the sheer strength to do VTOL.
| Unlike a hawk, they do not have talons, nor a hooked beak to
| grab, rip and tear. Their beak instead is designed to cut
| things in half or cut bits out.
|
| I could, but won't, witter on about the peregrine falcon.
| They are quite fast and successful.
|
| Pigeons (rock doves) will probably have the final say after
| Armageddon and will clean up any corvid, and seagull waste.
| Including those that found cockroaches unpalatable.
| sologoub wrote:
| Didn't see this in the article, but having a thriving bird
| population is great for pest control as well! They keep all kinds
| of bugs in check, so less need to spray stuff, etc.
| greenie_beans wrote:
| just plant native plants that have seed heads and don't dead head
| them once they're done flowering. your neighbor will think your
| garden is ugly, but they won't have many birds in their garden.
| hammock wrote:
| can you deadhead but just leave them all in one spot in the
| yard for the birds to find?
| greenie_beans wrote:
| idk, try it and let us know how it works out.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| We plant sunflowers and zinnias to get lovely visits from
| hummingbirds (and bees and butterflies) in the early to mid-
| summer and jays and finches coming for the seeds in the fall.
| goda90 wrote:
| Don't spray pesticides either. A lot of birds eat insects.
| smcleod wrote:
| Tip for New Zealand bird feeding - native birds feed on nectar
| (sugar/honey water) and not seeds which are primarily consumed by
| introduced / invasive species.
| soperj wrote:
| I thought Kiwis eat, roots, shoots and leaves?
| smcleod wrote:
| You're not going to be feeding kiwis in your average back
| yard, also - as they don't fly, they'll struggle to reach
| most bird feeders.
| davidhyde wrote:
| You're confusing, pandas with marsupials ;)
| 867-5309 wrote:
| there's a Lynne Truss joke in there somewhere..
| observationist wrote:
| Only the ones with guns and shovels.
| robjwells wrote:
| Narrowly on the matter of "clean feeders", I'd recommend people
| (particularly of interest to those in the UK) check out Finches
| Friend. They make feeders designed to avoid the spread of disease
| (primarily trichomonosis) and their blog posts are full of
| related information.
|
| https://www.finchesfriend.com/
| kingsloi wrote:
| One of the best things I've done recently was install bird
| feeders that hang from the soffits of my house. My main level is
| on the the top floor, and seeing all the birds while I'm at work
| or on the sofa is such a joy. They keep me, my cats, and toddler
| entertained... but having to refill every week gets expensive
| soperj wrote:
| > but having to refill every week gets expensive
|
| Less spent on cat toys though...
| mysterydip wrote:
| For those interested, Lazy Game Reviews (LGR) recently started a
| live bird feeder cam which runs daily: (edit: fixed)
| https://www.youtube.com/live/fd-2D_Qabqk?si=buJg480KK3VJI_PD
|
| Also, if you're curious what birds are coming into your yard, I
| recommend the Merlin Bird ID App from Cornell University:
| https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
| stn8188 wrote:
| Was the link an ad intentionally? Or was it a copy/paste error?
| mysterydip wrote:
| Copy paste error. It was the live feed, I'll see if I can fix
| it.
| Aaronstotle wrote:
| I feed my neighborhood crews peanuts pretty regularly, they know
| me and my girlfriend and are quick to show up in the morning when
| we have the bag of peanuts. Its fun
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