Bird (feathered one) Playing?

[chesters1]

Having had a jackdaw i can assure you anything shiny is a magnet to them ,ours even tried pinching spanners !

There are stories (perhaps true i dont make a rule of climbing trees looking) of magpie nests containing many shiny things ,collecting coloured objects is not unknown in the bird world.

Having had owls i agree the brain isnt used often and they pretty well eat and crap and regurgitate and not a lot more,they do though recognise individual humans so theres a speck of intelligence

[Dave H]

I found this mate...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28797519

 

It seems it is to warn off predators for some and not as bedding. I have never disputed your findings just that in general they are not attracted to them

 

I flew a Raven once among about 30 other birds including vultures and in general i think in the animal kingdom pack animals are the most intelligent as they have to communicate in fact i have found carrion eaters quite intelligent. A Harris Hawk is basically the only bird of prey that hunts in packs and are extremely intelligent

 

Birds trained to you simply see you as their mother , the food producer and if you dropped dead they would not lay there like a dog they would try to eat you.

Edited April 4, 2015 by Dave H

[chesters1]

Interesting but looking in a dozen nests not my idea of evidence

I suspect if you looked at nests in remote places unusual nest ornament will be rare but in urban areas where such things are common (and the birds wont be frightened by something unknown to them ) i have an idea the findings would be the opposite

As i said mine saw shiny things as something to pinch so my research reveals 100% of the jackdaws i watched liked pinching shiny things

Looks like i need to put out some shiny things for the resident magpies and jackdaws to evaluate

 

When we moved we found besides a great deal of poop hiding behind the top rail of the wardrobe a amount of shiny coins ring pulls and silver paper and the mrs earing that mysteriously disappeared a few months before .

 

Ofcourse if some birds didnt collect coloured things bowerbirds wouldnt exist

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2637365/Magpie-steals-womans-engagement-ring-and-buries-it-in-nest-for-three-years.html

Edited April 4, 2015 by chesters1

[Dave H]

When i was in Africa out the back of the restaurant there were some storks and the butcher used to throw out the scraps for them. He was telling me that one day he could not find his meat cleaver and was under pressure so quickly just used another. The next day he was slicing up the meat when one of the storks chucked up the meat cleaver he had lost the day before and it was the cleanest and most shiny cleaver he had ever seen and looked like pure silver.

 

It now hangs up in his kichen and has named one of the 3 storks 'Clever cleaver'!