Re: Our daily visitor............
Originally Posted by
John
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Every time we put out fat balls, the greedy crows, rooks, and magpies make very short work of them. It would be lovely to see such a colourful bird like that woodpecker for a change.
Hehe - the crows & magpies are very clever, and they can easily finish a fat ball if they are able use their talons to pull it up to the branch they are sitting on. So I have learned to hang the fat balls in a thin steel wire (the sort used for flower-binding).
This usually works - but once & a while I have noticed magpies who have a very clever approach to this problem. One magpie is "hovering" and picking food out of the fat ball and the others are sitting on the ground eating what comes down. I have even noticed that they change between them who is doing the picking.
Crows are also very clever birds, and me and my little rottie loves feeding them in the winter. We feed them with dog-food - and every winter at least a couple of them gets so tame they will take food from my outstreched hand.
Must admit I really admire the intelligence of these birds.
We live in a city with 150' inhabitants, but the crows will know us wherever we are. They will land very close to us and expect to be rewarded - and they will "compete" with my rottie in "who gets the treat" if I throw a treat along the road.