I let a baby bird nest in my hair for 84 days | Hacker News Reader

I let a baby bird nest in my hair for 84 days

theguardian.com

136 pointsnigerian198169 comments

My back yard had a colony? Community? Flock? Large group of Magpies. They would collectively complain when I was in the back yard. One day my dog had a slow wag which means they found something interesting. I found a baby bird, unharmed. I found a nest nearby and it had been windy recently. So I took a small cardboard box, duct taped it into the tree, and put the baby bird in it. I checked later and found the mom feeding the baby.

Ever since then, there was no complaints when I entered the back yard, and in fact they would often land on my hammock and would balance impressively (keeping the head still while the body swung) and peer in at us.

Clearly I had moved from the alarm list to the friend list, community wide. I'd often see a magpie on my fence or in a tree watching me quietly.

The whole corvid family is incredibly social and intelligent. They can remember and recognize human faces, and quickly deduce what's important to you (your laundry, for example), so you really don't want to end up on their "enemy" list.

> colony? Community? Flock? Large group of Magpies

charm/mischief of magpies

colony? Community? Flock? Large group of Magpies

"Mischief", supposedly, among other terms. But such "terms of venery" are usually Victorian parlor games, not actually used in practice. Any of the words you used is fine.

If you stick around long enough, you'll be able to guess almost perfectly in which paper an article appears based on its headline alone.

This problem just begs for a machine learning solution

As a child, my cat found a baby flying squirrel in the grass. The vet speculated that, due to its very small size, it had been kicked from the nest. The cat was very upset about the whole thing and alerted us to the situation (part Siamese, she had a particular cry which meant "There is a Problem and you must come handle the Problem!"), which ended with us raising him. I was definitely the preferred spot for the flying squirrel: hiding in my hair, my shirt or shirt pocket, and so on. If the cage was open and I was home, he was on me.

I had to get used to him just landing on me out of nowhere because, well, flying squirrel.

Did you name it Rocky? Please tell me you named it Rocky!

The story reminds me a bit of the scientist who raised turkey hatchlings as a "mother turkey" and learned their calls and behaviour. Really fascinating documentary if you can find it: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2496522/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0133r58 Edit: It has its own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Life_as_a_Turkey

See "King Solomon's Ring", by Konrad Lorentz. He describes shuffling around his garden in a squatting posture, followed by a column of imprinted greylag goslings. They only recognised him as their mum when he was under a meter tall, hence the squatting.

I'm not sure that an 84-day-old bird still counts as a "baby bird"; don't most hatchlings fledge within 30 days or so?

When she took him in, it had closed eyes, so that still qualifies as "baby bird", and it "fledged" relatively soon thereafter, though it kept a social bond with the woman, even past adulthood, which would have been at least a few weeks later.

In Last Chance to See (https://www.amazon.com/Last-Chance-See-Douglas-Adams/dp/0434...) there is a story of a baby bird that couldn't imprint on the person who raised him, but did imprint on the yellow glove he was fed with.

As an adult, the bird did not recognize his own species, but did recognize the glove and was willing to mate with it.

Since the species in question was severely endangered, this was seen as useful as a way to try to keep the species alive.

Maybe the bird had a latex fetish

Beautiful read. It’s interesting how helping others can be so fulfilling, almost like the default human condition is as caretakers.

I can’t say I would have done the same in her shoes, but it must have been very life affirming to essentially save a life and have its life married to yours.

The Jains were on to something over 11 centuries ago:

https://wikiless.org/wiki/Ahimsa_in_Jainism

I am not a Jain, but I hold a deep respect for their duty of Ahimsa as being at the core of sensible living.

Isn't jainism about 2500 years old ?

Having just looked up Jainism this time on Wikipedia I see that Jains claim that some of their greatest teachers were active far earlier than the time frames we've mentioned, even beyond any conventional count of years, but I'm not qualified to comment on their cosmology. I admire the duty of Ahimsa, so I mentioned it in the context of the parent post.

And you did not share a picture of your bird.

Here is one: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fgiMlnbDN6I/hqdefault.jpg

I also found that fact odd. She's a photographer, I expected more visual content added to the text :(. It was quite enjoyable anyway.

It’s very difficult to take a photo of the top of your head :)

Thanks !

The bird's size matters a lot: It would be much more difficult to let this happen with these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_black-backed_gull

You lookin' at my bird?

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/animals-bir...

For those unfamiliar, that phrase is fighting talk that might be uttered by a very insecure male, out with his girlfriend.

Incidentally, the cartoonstock image has a Copyright watermark on it. I believe that image is copyright Punch magazine, around 1968. If cartoonstock purchased the copyright, then I assert that it's fair use to post a link here.

Article hotlinks a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgiMlnbDN6I

Please don't do this. Habituating wildlife to humans is not doing them any favors, it usually leads to their early demise. First make sure they are truly abandoned, most of the time mom is nearby. Second, if mom is truly not around, take the animal to a credentialed wildlife rehabber as soon as you can.

I’m often curious about situations like this, as I had similar thoughts while reading. Assuming the bird was truly abandoned, is it better to imperfectly raise them yourself or to leave them to die? Not everyone is going to want or be able to track down a wildlife rehab expert.

Tracking down a rehabber is far less effort than raising a wild animal. Most of the time there is not much difference in outcome between leaving it to die vs taking it in and raising it yourself, except the suffering is prolonged. Find a wildlife rehabber or find someone who will. I know that is not nearly as fun as raising a wild animal, I always dreamed of having a pet raccoon as a child, but it's the responsible thing to do.

That is the most click-bait headline I have ever read that actually delivers content both relevant to the headline and interesting!

Also the vast majority of birds do not live or sleep in the nests they make, the nests are for chicks.

https://slate.com/technology/2014/01/where-do-birds-sleep-ro...

Clickbait title.

I had a young pet finch Lonchura that, sometimes, not all the time, landed on my shoulders and head to rest for a while.

Ironically, her husband's name is Robin.

Plot twist, her name is Batman!

> When I returned, in January, I’d watch out for him when the finches flew past. Every now and then, one would hang back, on a branch, and stare at me. I still cry when I think of him.

Now who's cutting onions here... having freshly raised two kittens to adulthood, I can say it's a highly rewarding experience to assist new life in growth.

[OMNIA - "Earth Warrior" - sneak peek bootleg live recording](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfN_ZMmiLQw) - bird nest edition

I suspect the border between cute and sickening is an important pychological attribute that explains vast variations in human behavior.

On seeing the headline I wondered about the poop issue. But now see the bird wasn't always in her hair.

Reminds me of the great Radiolab botfly story: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/segments/91678...

I wish there were pictures!

There'a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgiMlnbDN6I

I don’t normally come to Hacker News to have a good cry.

All I can think about is the episode of "family guy" where Peter has birds nest in his beard

Ew.

Ms. Veronica Crabtree, the prequel

I was thinking Radagast.

Food cubes, now this? HN ... you've lost your ways.

While the story itself certainly is cute, this article somehow reinforces all prejudices I hold against the London bourgeoisie.

Like how they find the cleaning of a bird litter exhausting when other people deal with both pets and babies at the same time?

You guys really need to step out when you start to get too cynical.

It's a cute story about something that is out of the ordinary and left a emotional mark in someone, enough that they wanted to write about it.

No need to be so judgemental.

> You guys really need to step out when you start to get too cynical.

Maybe I wouldn't have been so cynical if the author would've respected the title and shown some Radagast hair nest.

Now that's a fair criticism, the article is very light on birb pictures too.

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