[HN Gopher] Magpies - Smart, witty birds ___________________________________________________________________ Magpies - Smart, witty birds Author : mooreds Score : 73 points Date : 2022-12-03 03:54 UTC (2 days ago) (HTM) web link (www.ouraynews.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.ouraynews.com) | AbleWilliam wrote: | A number of years ago my housemate found an injured magpie in the | backyard and brought it in. It seemed to have been involved in a | fight with something, and while its wing was intact, it had lost | enough feathers so as to be unable to fly. | | It lived with us for about three weeks as it recuperated, slowly | spending more time in the yard and eventually flying away. It was | really fun to have around, it would perch on top of my laptop and | watch me as I worked, occasionally poking at my head, or flopping | down to look at the screen. | | It was a very smart and attentive bird. The one time we left it | alone in the kitchen, it climbed the shelves and pecked a hole in | its birdseed bag. 10/10 would recommend. | ljf wrote: | When I was about 10, we had a semi tame magpie for a while, | everyone who met it fell in love with it - it was so personalable | and interested in humans. | | During a storm it had fallen out of a nest in our garden and I | spotted it when I saw my cat approaching it. Tiny and hungry, it | was happy to be fed and took bits of cat food from a pair of | tweezers. | | The next day another fell out - there was no way for us to reach | the nest to return either of them, so we brought it in too. | | It resolutely refused to eat and thought we were terrifying, even | though it's relative would eat in front of it. It died quickly | overnight, though we were not sure how long it had been out the | nest. | | --- | | The first magpie, we named Marilyn as I had just learnt the name | had normally been a male name before Marilyn Monroe, so I thought | it a good unisex name. | | It grew really attached to us - we'd feed it as often as it | wanted, and it would perch on some bamboo rods that my father | fixed up in the kitchen and chatter to use while we were talking. | It would fly to my shoulder and back when asked to, and enjoyed | being stroked and scratched. | | Each night it would fly to a box we had so we could put it to bed | and keep it safe from our cats (who generally seemed pretty | uninterested as it grew bigger). | | For a period we would take it into the garden each day, and it | would fly off and return as much as it wanted, coming back into | the kitchen through our open door. Then one day it suddenly | learnt how to eat and drink by itself - the next day it flew off | and we never knowingly saw it again. | | I later read that in the middle ages they were common pets - but | they would clip their wings for the first few months so they lose | the urge to fly away. I am sad it left, but glad we didn't, I | hope it lived a good magpie life somewhere. | | I still say 'Marilyn' to magpies I meet, just in case it is them | :) | gsinclair wrote: | A beautiful story, thank you. They are marvellous birds. | nicbou wrote: | That's the sort of comments that keep me coming back to this | website. Now I want a pet magpie! Thanks for sharing. | seanw444 wrote: | There was one that must've set up a nest somewhere near my | parking spot at my apartment towards the end of summer. Every | time I came home, it would be running around looking for things | in the flowerbed nearby, and then come over to me and follow my | feet/shoes, and then do soft nips. It was interesting though, | because it's like it knew not to peck my ankles (that were | covered by my socks) as hard as it did my shoes. Playful in a | way. | | It would stand on my shoe, and I'd lift it up. It'd bite onto the | side of my shoe, and I'd play tug of war with it. | | At one point I was diagnosing a car battery issue, and when I had | the hood popped, it got territorial over _my_ car. I kept trying | to lead it away by enticing it with something distracting a | little ways away from the car, and then running back to check my | battery. But it would return. | | A couple times, I pulled out of my spot to head to work in the | morning, and it'd ride on top of my car for a few seconds before | I started driving too fast. | | They're such interesting birds. I kinda miss that one. | KineticLensman wrote: | (I volunteer at a raptor conservation Trust). | | Many birds will play with objects in their aviaries to varying | degrees. Vultures (Hooded and Egyptian) will pull on shoe | laces. Owls and Kites will fly off with a sponge if you take | your eyes off it while cleaning their aviary. Caracaras are | about as safe to have around as a raccoon. Many birds will look | inside a bucket or try to pull it over. | | These birds vary a lot in their intelligence, as indicated by | their ability to solve problems to access food. | rolph wrote: | what might you think of trading posts? | | e.g use a visual cue, such as a dollar bill, coupled with | food reward. attempt to cargo cult the birds, into | replicating conditions associated with reward. to the end, | birds will find the cue [$] and bring it to the trade post | /vending machine. | | the bird doesnt need to "know" any material value, other | than; a particular item, at a particular place, allows food | discovery | KineticLensman wrote: | Not many dollar bills in aviaries, unfortunately. We | already have to watch out for the free-flying birds diving | into the crowd during a display to steal sandwiches, | sausage rolls, etc. Probably best not to train them to go | for wallets | jfk13 wrote: | There was the guy who trained his local magpies to collect | discarded bottle caps... | https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/magpies- | traine... | ChuckNorris89 wrote: | Related: Training Australia's Dangerous Magpies [1] | | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXYf2DTOsvI | lxe wrote: | I've come to really enjoy observing birds in my yard. Their | behavior creates this interesting little drama that's fun to just | pay attention to. Especially when war breaks out. Crows VS Owls | is quite a show. | COGlory wrote: | I used to love magpies, until I got a dog. | | I now hate magpies. | chasil wrote: | La Gazza Ladra. | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_gazza_ladra | papandada wrote: | I worked at a tourist destination in Canada one summer during | school. A foreigner came up to me and asked, "what are these | _beautiful_ birds we keep seeing? " | | Well ma'am, those are magpies, and we all complain about them. I | still laugh about that, but I do think it's sweet to be able to | look at even magpies through a fresh perspective and see they are | beautiful, and wonderful, in their own way. | xeonmc wrote: | Here's the thing. You said a "jackdaw is a crow." ... | Pr0ject217 wrote: | Magpies: my least favorite animal. | | They're obnoxious and aggressive. | eatonphil wrote: | I've seen them in Korea (they are large, and everywhere) but | sadly not in the (Eastern) US. | | https://www.eagletimes.com/lifestyles/of-a-feather-why-no-ma... | sliken wrote: | Had a community of magpies in my back yard. They'd often | collectively yell at me when I was in the back yard. One day my | dog found something, obviously pleased with herself. I found an | unhurt baby bird and nest that had been blown down. I put the dog | in, got a cardboard box and duct tape, and put the bird+nest back | in the tree securely. | | Shortly later, saw the mom feeding the baby. | | They never yelled at us again, and would often peek in our | windows at us, or hang out in front of our glass door looking in. | pleb_nz wrote: | Not to be confused with Australian magpies which although also | smart are not related to European and american magpies. | EdwardDiego wrote: | And are giant arseholes when they're nesting. In the country | town I grew up in, a key footpath when walking to school would | end up with 3 - 4 magpie nests in trees alongside it. | | So us kids would compete to see who could last the longest | walking past them, as soon as you ran, or put your backpack | over your head to protect yourself, you lost. | | No-one ever made it past the third nest without breaking. | [deleted] | LordHeini wrote: | Loosely related: | | The German name of Magpie is Elster. | | They are known for liking and 'acquiring' shiny things like | coins. | | The German online portal for tax declaration is called Elster as | well. | | Apparently it stands for ELektronische STeuerERklarung :) | 867-5309 wrote: | shame the 'shiny things' was debunked as a myth | | https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/research/title_406690_en.html | [deleted] | [deleted] ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-12-05 23:01 UTC)