The bird hierarchy outside my back door

Category: Some Thoughts | Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 2:27 pm

Every morning I get up and before tackling into my big bowl of porridge I put some food out for my little feathered friends. Recently I started to put food out and love seeing the little community that shows up everyday. Most days it goes like so....

First comes the robin who I swear is perched on a wall somewhere constantly on the look out for the food. He must have a little camp set up somewhere. He eats until he is full or unless he is hunted away by...

... the flock of starlings who always tackle the food in groups. I've never seen a starling on its own tackling into the food. Although I have seen a solitary immature starling (they are easy to spot, they have a brown colour unlike the adult starling who is the traditional starling colours). They keep eating until all the food is gone or until they are scared away by...

... the magpie or the crow. I hate these guys. They say the pigeon is the 'flying rat' but I would put the crow and the magpie into this category as well. Depending on whether I have noticed whether the robin and starlings have had their feed I will hunt these guys away.

I'm looking out my back door as I type and I have 3 hungry starlings looking up at me doing their best to guilt trip me into throwing out some more food. Crafty little buggers!

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dooley wrote on Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:09 pm:

Of course they are. Starlings will eat all of the food even if they are not hungry. We have crows, but not magpies. Mostly, we have sparrows in winter. Dan has cardinals and bluejays. He feeds them. I don't know why he does not have sparrows. My neighbor feeds everything. He has a bird santuary.

Under the Arbor wrote on Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:55 pm:

I like crows. I like the way they chatter and talk amongst themselves. You just know they are hatching some neferious plot. Plus we had a pet crow growing up. My brother found him and brought him home when he was just a chick. I think he was kicked out of the nest because he was not healthy. We think he had epilepsy of some form because he would suddenly fall when flying. As I recall, he did not live a long time, but he was full grown when he died, I do remember that.

Gardenstew wrote on Thu Jan 12, 2006 6:01 pm:

I took a sick crow under my wing (hehe) when I was young as well. It had injured its wing and I looked after it until it was strong again. Then one day I took it outside and released it. Needless to say there was no thank you :( (heh)

Although in the following years I began to dislike them as living on a farm that grows potatoes I know what pests they can be.

jubabe296 wrote on Sun Mar 19, 2006 6:39 am:

Your morning is definitely full of feathered friends!That's so wonderful!! I love birds, but I agree with you about the crows.They are so noisy and pesky! We don't have magpies,but if they are like crows I wouldn't like them either (LOL!)

glendann wrote on Sat May 27, 2006 6:57 pm:

I do not like crows either .Their are so many cats here that a bird does't dare sit around my yard.Cats do keep snakes away so we have to many cats .We mostly have copperheads and they are so dangerous as you can't see them .very well ,here in this area of Texas we also have chicken snakes and spreading Adders here
If you hear a Blue Jay real making noise he probably found a chicken snake in a tree looking for bird eggs.

wayne wrote on Thu Jun 07, 2007 2:50 pm:

I dont care for starlings or crows because i raise Purple martins that the starlings have no problems with killing there young and evicting the adults from thier cavities after they(purple martins )have traveled an amazing 3'000 miles min to the US just to raise thier young. Crows on the other hand raid and eat any nesting birds they can get to. Fact