Clever Corvids

My son studied corvids for his phd several years ago .
As part of his research the birds he was studying had to reach food that was floating on water at the bottom of a tube . The birds learnt that if they dropped pebbles in the tube the water level rose until they were able to reach the food with their beaks.
Because his surname is Bird he got quite a lot of media attention and was even on breakfast tv (on the sofa) explaining his work and showing a video of his corvids.

madeleine45

Even Mozart knew how clever they were with his "The Thieving Magpie. "They are such clever birds arent they?

Does anyone else look for another magpie if they see just one?

Our house has a narrow channel approximately 3" tall which runs along one side (it's to ventilate the loft).

A year ago, we heard noises from above a ceiling and found that jackdaws had managed to gain entry via this slot and our pantiles and this took them into our loft.

We have had no help from the RSPB (who couldn't come up with a plan except to paint the exterior with something the birds disliked the taste of) or indeed roofers, who put in mesh to keep the birds out. Within two days, the birds, working in pairs tore the mesh out. The roofer returned, redid the work and assured us he had made the area jackdaw secure. Well, he had - for another two days - before the jackdaws, working in a team of three (they had brought in an apprentice) ripped the 'secure' mesh out.

My husband spent several months (on and off! I didn't keep him chained up until he had finished!) putting in panels of wood from the inside of the loft into the space at the edge to try and stop them entering. It is impossible for him to actually reach the slot/edge of the loft due to the angles, so he was working blind.
Incidentally, the exterior of the house is 30'+ high as we are in a hill and he's too old to balance that high on a ladder to work from the outside.

Once again, these clever corvids circumnavigated all his efforts and had made a hole with their beaks for ingress. They had a very comfy snuggly winter.

We have given up. It is breeding season and of course we don't want to harm the birds or break the law but we do who wonder who will support us if the jackdaws peck through cables and start a fire....

There seems to be no way to rid us of these birds.

Ideas anyone, please?!!!

I've always loved birds, and find them fascinating. We have both crows and ravens around the neighbourhood.

Years ago, in the morning as I left the house I heard a cat meowing, and knew our cat was indoors. Looking up, it was a raven on a lightpost having fun with me.

We feed the birds with suet in winter, but stop once insects and flowers are plentiful.

Not crows, but clever wood pigeons. Learned to body-slam bird feeders intended for small birds. Enough spilled on to floor for them to feed. Then lots of gross droppings for me to clear up on patio. 🥹 Also have magpies dunking bread in water bowls left out for wildlife. Have a surge in bees drinking from them lately. Can’t quite identify what they are. Possibly red mason bees. They’re rather cute.

Fleurpepper, your Minou reminds me of our Minette, who was a very kind long haired pastel calico.

Is it fairly common for males to be called Minou, and females Minette?

Candelle

Our house has a narrow channel approximately 3" tall which runs along one side (it's to ventilate the loft).

A year ago, we heard noises from above a ceiling and found that jackdaws had managed to gain entry via this slot and our pantiles and this took them into our loft.

We have had no help from the RSPB (who couldn't come up with a plan except to paint the exterior with something the birds disliked the taste of) or indeed roofers, who put in mesh to keep the birds out. Within two days, the birds, working in pairs tore the mesh out. The roofer returned, redid the work and assured us he had made the area jackdaw secure. Well, he had - for another two days - before the jackdaws, working in a team of three (they had brought in an apprentice) ripped the 'secure' mesh out.

My husband spent several months (on and off! I didn't keep him chained up until he had finished!) putting in panels of wood from the inside of the loft into the space at the edge to try and stop them entering. It is impossible for him to actually reach the slot/edge of the loft due to the angles, so he was working blind.
Incidentally, the exterior of the house is 30'+ high as we are in a hill and he's too old to balance that high on a ladder to work from the outside.

Once again, these clever corvids circumnavigated all his efforts and had made a hole with their beaks for ingress. They had a very comfy snuggly winter.

We have given up. It is breeding season and of course we don't want to harm the birds or break the law but we do who wonder who will support us if the jackdaws peck through cables and start a fire....

There seems to be no way to rid us of these birds.

Ideas anyone, please?!!!

Ours has that space too but it is filled with sturdy metal grids - apart from one part which the builder missed. Blackbirds managed to get in and once, when I climbed the ladder to go into the loft, one whizzed past my head. I nearly fell down the ladder.

DH filled in the gap after they'd gone but I think sparrows can just squeeze through the gaps between the bars.

A baby sparrow came and sat just above my head on the trellis yesterday, it was looking for its mother. It was so tiny and trembling, obviously just fledged but looked too young and fragile to be out of the nest.
The mother did come and collect it.

We have the pleasure of living with a disabled rescue crow. She amazes me every day with her intelligence and her resilience. Such an amazing species.

Local parakeets have found a way to access sunflower hearts in one of our supposedly small bird feeders, and recently I’ve seen one or two having a go at the fat ball feeder, too.
I’ve seen 3 parakeets queueing in the hawthorn tree near the sunflower feeder, waiting for their go.

There are always pigeons under both feeders, hoovering up spills.

Our daily entertainment is watching the red kites and the crows fighting. The kites have nested 50 yards from our back door and the crows want their eggs.

I wondered why my protein ball container was dislodged on the ground a lot, now I know! I have a very unusual looking pigeon in my garden all the time. The other day I went to put more food on the bird table and 'Freddie' was there, didn't fly off, I started talking to him/her and he seemed very interested in what I was saying, came right up to me!

I tied a wicker basket underneath the hanging bird feeder table to stop the bigger birds tipping all the food off, it also catches the falling food and now the little birds sit in the basket to eat. The big fat pigeons [luckily only 2] now sit on the edge of the wicker basket, stretch their heads up and can just about manage to eat some of the food in the higher hanging feeding table. Looks so funny, clever too.

QuoteJuliet27 Wed 17-May-23 09:11:41

Yes sad. My local park's Swans had 6 babies, a gull swooped down and took one cygnet high up and dropped it. It was taken away to hopefully recover but can never be reunited with its family as will be rejected.

Another time I was enjoying watching new baby sparrows with their parents playing on my flat roof when a Magpie swooped down and took it! Never liked Magpies since.

I can recommend a book called The Parrot in the Mirror. Its premise is that primates, and humans in particular, have evolved to become more like birds. Very persuasive and very, very interesting.

We had a crow attacking one of our cars a few years ago - not sure why but it would wake us in the morning, cawing and the noise of it pecking at the bodywork. The jackdaws seem to have taken over from starlings here (we used to have lots of starlings now it's lots of jackdaws). They love the thatched roofs and are very clever at thwarting attempts to stop them pulling the thatch off to use as nesting. There's an NT site with a large thatched barn and it was re-thatched last year and netting put on that sat above the thatch. Within a very short space of time the birds had worked out that if a couple 'sat' on the netting it pushed it down so others could get at the thatch!

Just watched a squirrel knock down the protein ball feeder, jump down onto the grass and take a whole ball and run up the tree to eat it! I went out to sort it and as I was balancing on a stall to re-hook the feeder, I was being showered by the squirrel above me eating his p.b.

We've recently acquired a peahen. She belongs to a neighbour but she has decided to adopt us (my neighbour is happy with this arrangement). She's young and although initially quite wary, she has become quite tame very quickly. I find her fascinating and she's clearly intelligent. When she wants feeding she stands at the courtyard gates and stares at the kitchen windows, she's totally unfazed by our dog and likes to sit and watch us working in the garden. She won't accept food from my hand yet but she'll eat out of a bowl that I'm holding and follows me about like a dog!

Family friends acquired a peahen, Foxie, it just appeared one day in their large garden, which backed onto fields and woodland. It became quite tame and pottered about ignoring their big dogs and their numerous cats.

After some months it disappeared so they thought she’d succumbed to a fox (sorry!) or maybe road traffic. Imagine their astonishment when a few weeks later she reappeared with five pea-chicks in tow!! Where she found a mate in rural Scotland was a mystery but she took up residence in their greenhouse, having turfed out one of their cats who thought it was his territory.

Two of the chicks didn’t make it but the other three grew to adulthood, joining their menagerie of animals.

What lovely stories about the peahens!

Magrithea

We had a crow attacking one of our cars a few years ago - not sure why but it would wake us in the morning, cawing and the noise of it pecking at the bodywork. The jackdaws seem to have taken over from starlings here (we used to have lots of starlings now it's lots of jackdaws). They love the thatched roofs and are very clever at thwarting attempts to stop them pulling the thatch off to use as nesting. There's an NT site with a large thatched barn and it was re-thatched last year and netting put on that sat above the thatch. Within a very short space of time the birds had worked out that if a couple 'sat' on the netting it pushed it down so others could get at the thatch!

I love jackdaws. They are the cheeky chappies of the bird world. We were in Port Isaac a few years ago and I was amazed to see how many jackdaws were living over the village and around the harbour. They far outnumbered the crows and seemed to operate in 'gangs'. They also sounded like the Cornish choughs. Brilliant.