Originally published at: Birds get the word that woman has snacks | Boing Boing
…
11 Likes
The even spacing between the birds is a normal display of personal space. They stay about one wingspan apart for comfort. If you watch a flock of birds perching on power lines, they do the same thing. It’s fun to watch them expand away from a latecomer who lands in the middle.
21 Likes
7 Likes
Birds get the word
Huh?
I thought bird is the word. 
11 Likes
3 Likes
An online friend in Sydney who feeds the magpies has had presumably the same ones nesting in his yard for several years and they bring the babies to meet him.
12 Likes
I assume this is Australia, where the cockatoos are infamous for never missing a trick when it comes to getting food - they figure out how to open up containers (e.g. trash bins that have been made “parrot-proof”) and then teach each other how to do it, for example.
11 Likes
… surely this was on the BB front page at some point but I can’t find it
8 Likes
10 Likes
Yes, sulphur crested cockatoos, native to and wide spread throughout Australia. I live in a rural area and they can often be seen around the river in huge numbers, hundreds in a mob. Their noise is deafening.
I use to hang a seed bell in a backyard tree for the smaller birds until a cockatoo took the whole thing (1.5kg), complete with wire hanger.
10 Likes
That bite at the very end: “Did you bring enough for everyone?!”
2 Likes
Oh that reminds me,
6 Likes
I’ve got a number of friends around the country that do the same, with the same response. One friend here in Perth is on about the 4th generation of magpies.
5 Likes
I’ve read about the human somewhere previously, and yes, she’s been feeding the visiting mob for quite a while now. Evidently one specific cockatoo is allowed to come inside the apartment.
3 Likes
My friend isn’t sure whether it’s the same original magpies, or as you say, generations down from the originals.
I would love to make friends with crows, but for some reason, they don’t hang around my neighbourhood. Any that I see are mostly around the main road a block north. Most likely because garbage is more plentiful there and in the alley behind the many restaurants.
3 Likes
You should never feed the cockies. If they decide you haven’t fed them enough they can damage your house.
5 Likes
Too bad that mimicking curse words was not in its repertoire.
