So I finally found and installed a relatively squirrel-resistant bird feeder, and now I have all sorts of little birds flying over to my place for dinner. I only recognize one of the bird species, that being the sparrows. There are also birds about that size that are blue and white, smaller birds that are black and white, and little ones that are black and yellow and who look a bit like Ringo Starr. I'll take some pictures when I have a chance.
The birds eat pretty much non-stop, in small servings. That makes sense, of course: They can't store a lot of energy as fat or else they'll be too heavy to fly (I can kind of relate to that, actually), so they have to eat pretty much constantly. That need also affords an opportunity for a bit of insight into their learning habits.
The first question was how do they find the feeder in the first place. Is it just chance? No, I learned. The answer came from a little kid in the store where I bought the feeder. While my lady friend and I were discussing the question of how the birds find the feeder, the little kid said, "It's 'cause a lot of other people have that same feeder, so the birds already know what a feeder looks like." Smart kid.
I've noticed a few other things about the birds. One is that the sparrows seem to like feeding on the ground, as do some larger birds who can't comfortably feed while sitting on the perches. So the sparrows and the larger birds wait until the Ringo Starr birds shake some seed to the ground for them.
It's also interesting that their attitude toward me has changed very quickly. When I first hung the feeder, the birds kind of hung out in the bushes until I was out of sight. If I even walked past a window, one of the birds would alert, and the rest would fly away.
Within a day, they got used to my comings and goings, and no longer flew away when I walked by. But if I walked close to the feeder, they would fly away.
But since the first time that I refilled the feeder, they fly toward me when I approach the feeder. They've figured out that I'm the source of the seeds, I guess. I also have learned to recognize their alert call, and they no longer respond to alerts from other nearby areas when I'm outside; so possibly they also consider me a protector.
That would make some kind of sense, actually. A predator who's friendly toward a prey animal would make a great protector by keeping the other predators away. Or possibly, if there is such a "protected" feeling on their parts, the association is with the area, rather than the friendly predator himself.
Sooo... The learning process went from fear of me (their native response to humans, I would think), to relative indifference, to attraction once they figured out that I was the one filling the feeder, to (possibly) a feeling of safety when I was there. This all happened in a few days.
All of this is interesting to me because I never really thought that the common, littler, seed-eating birds had a whole lot of cognitive ability. Raptors and migratory birds, sure. But not sparrows and the little Ringo Starr-looking birds. I figured their brains were pretty much dedicated to the mechanics of flight, rather than assessing people. Clearly, I was wrong about that.
-Rich
The birds eat pretty much non-stop, in small servings. That makes sense, of course: They can't store a lot of energy as fat or else they'll be too heavy to fly (I can kind of relate to that, actually), so they have to eat pretty much constantly. That need also affords an opportunity for a bit of insight into their learning habits.
The first question was how do they find the feeder in the first place. Is it just chance? No, I learned. The answer came from a little kid in the store where I bought the feeder. While my lady friend and I were discussing the question of how the birds find the feeder, the little kid said, "It's 'cause a lot of other people have that same feeder, so the birds already know what a feeder looks like." Smart kid.
I've noticed a few other things about the birds. One is that the sparrows seem to like feeding on the ground, as do some larger birds who can't comfortably feed while sitting on the perches. So the sparrows and the larger birds wait until the Ringo Starr birds shake some seed to the ground for them.
It's also interesting that their attitude toward me has changed very quickly. When I first hung the feeder, the birds kind of hung out in the bushes until I was out of sight. If I even walked past a window, one of the birds would alert, and the rest would fly away.
Within a day, they got used to my comings and goings, and no longer flew away when I walked by. But if I walked close to the feeder, they would fly away.
But since the first time that I refilled the feeder, they fly toward me when I approach the feeder. They've figured out that I'm the source of the seeds, I guess. I also have learned to recognize their alert call, and they no longer respond to alerts from other nearby areas when I'm outside; so possibly they also consider me a protector.
That would make some kind of sense, actually. A predator who's friendly toward a prey animal would make a great protector by keeping the other predators away. Or possibly, if there is such a "protected" feeling on their parts, the association is with the area, rather than the friendly predator himself.
Sooo... The learning process went from fear of me (their native response to humans, I would think), to relative indifference, to attraction once they figured out that I was the one filling the feeder, to (possibly) a feeling of safety when I was there. This all happened in a few days.
All of this is interesting to me because I never really thought that the common, littler, seed-eating birds had a whole lot of cognitive ability. Raptors and migratory birds, sure. But not sparrows and the little Ringo Starr-looking birds. I figured their brains were pretty much dedicated to the mechanics of flight, rather than assessing people. Clearly, I was wrong about that.
-Rich
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