poliphilo: (Default)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2020-01-16 01:42 pm

Birds Are Smart

1. So many sparrows!

They used to be if the most visible of British birds. Chirpy, fearless, adaptable. Then they went into decline. I was worried about them.

But things are changing. I don't know about the broader national scene but here in West Kent, close to the Sussex border, they're crowding round our feeders in the sort of numbers I remember from my childhood. They've found a way round whatever it was that was discouraging them- and they're proliferating.

2. Robins are ground feeders.

But this morning I saw one perch on top of a hanging coconut shell and peck downwards at the contents for all the world as if it had been watching the tits- and had figured out how they do it.

3. Birds are smart. They're not locked into their behaviour patterns. They learn.
cmcmck: (Default)

[personal profile] cmcmck 2020-01-16 04:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Sparrows (both tree and house) are certainly nothing like in decline here!

[personal profile] razorbladeromance 2020-01-16 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
We get sparrows too.