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It's OK to feed wild birds – here are some tips for doing it the right way

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131–139 of 139 posts

Re: It's OK to feed wild birds – here are some tips for doing it the right way

#131
We don’t feed the birds directly, but we do have a fountain the local birds greatly enjoy. We make it a point that algaecide we use is bird safe.

From finches to crows, they all seem to enjoy the running water in our ad hoc birdie bidet. Once or twice a year we get a reenactment of “The Birds” when 10+ rather large crows descend for a spa day.

Re: It's OK to feed wild birds – here are some tips for doing it the right way

#132
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried that once. I fed a bunch of crows some walnuts while sitting by a river, and it was fine. The next day I came back, I fed crows at the same spot, and soon a murder of other crows came and attacked the crows I just fed. Not even just lightly nabbing them, but hacking down on them continuously until I broke up the fight. Didn't try feeding any since then.

You're supposed to use McDonalds fries, and some light rock-throwing toward the opposing faction. Traditionally this is how murder-crows have been trained since at least 2013. Total process is a few weeks. Source: https://imgur.com/f50IZJS

Crows are social animals, and it would be very strange for the two factions to not intermingle (let alone just observe) and know what was really going on. Also they are opportunistic animals, and won’t give up the chance to get a treat even if they consider you an enemy; where I live the crows consider me a threat and caw loudly and angrily peck at plants and the windows if they see me, but will take any food that I leave outside.

The crow war is a good story, if only a bit suspect.

Re: It's OK to feed wild birds – here are some tips for doing it the right way

#133

None of this applies to crows. They're very happy to eat our rotting corpses and day old vomit. So feeding them can be an adventure if you try hard enough.

Come to Austin. We have loud, annoying, fearless, and rude grackles who will leap up on your outdoor table and fight you for your lunch. They're no crows, to be sure.

Crows are smarter. I saw a crow chowing down with its buddies after it ninja'ed inside a mechanic's shop to steal their sunflower seeds from atop their toolbox. That it both identified a package containing food it liked and knew when humans were watching, formulated a plan, and executed it successfully demonstrated significant intelligence.

Reportedly, one can befriend crows as well as crows supposedly hold grudges.

Re: It's OK to feed wild birds – here are some tips for doing it the right way

#134
post #77
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried that once. I fed a bunch of crows some walnuts while sitting by a river, and it was fine. The next day I came back, I fed crows at the same spot, and soon a murder of other crows came and attacked the crows I just fed. Not even just lightly nabbing them, but hacking down on them continuously until I broke up the fight. Didn't try feeding any since then.

Whomever came up with that nonsense about cockroaches inheriting the smoking remnants of the earth we leave behind have no idea. "If its a rook its a crow ..." Crow are mostly singletons, rooks are the social largish, black corvid. By social, I mean bird form of Peaky Blinders. In the park opposite my house there are many large, mature trees. Several of them are home to rival gangs of rooks. There are also many magpi…

They’ve already survived one apocalypse before, who’s to say they can’t another one?

Re: It's OK to feed wild birds – here are some tips for doing it the right way

#135
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turf wars. We just call it war when humans do it. Or genocide.

Genocide is the complete elimination ion of another group... Might be a little far.

[dead]

Re: It's OK to feed wild birds – here are some tips for doing it the right way

#136

just plant native plants that have seed heads and don't dead head them once they're done flowering. your neighbor will think your garden is ugly, but they won't have many birds in their garden.

You can do that, and you’ll certainly have seed available for - three months of the year

no, that is false. the seedheads sit on the stalk through the winter, providing bird food through meager times. that has been my experience at least, in both a warmer climate and a colder climate.

Re: It's OK to feed wild birds – here are some tips for doing it the right way

#138
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried that once. I fed a bunch of crows some walnuts while sitting by a river, and it was fine. The next day I came back, I fed crows at the same spot, and soon a murder of other crows came and attacked the crows I just fed. Not even just lightly nabbing them, but hacking down on them continuously until I broke up the fight. Didn't try feeding any since then.

You're supposed to use McDonalds fries, and some light rock-throwing toward the opposing faction. Traditionally this is how murder-crows have been trained since at least 2013. Total process is a few weeks. Source: https://imgur.com/f50IZJS

The barriers are dissolving! 4chan by way of reddit on HN

Age of Aquarius, or barbarians at the gate?

Shrug emoji

Re: It's OK to feed wild birds – here are some tips for doing it the right way

#139

[flagged]

@dang Unsure how to flag this other than tagging you?

You can email HN mods at hn@ycombinator.com.

In this case, dang's well aware of the spammer flood. I'd emailed with a list of accounts myself, accidentally including your user ID as well.

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