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Comment by NohatCoder | Hacker News Reader

As far as this actually does anything, the birds will surely learn to ignore it / navigate around it. That is why house sparrows are so widespread in the first place, they have adapted to all the stupid things we humans do.

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> ”the birds will surely learn to ignore it”

Why so sure? Did you read the papers and have any reasoning to why they will adapt?

Because of learning and/or evolution. The paper doesn't offer any reason why they shouldn't adapt, as adaptation goes this one should be pretty easy as it is basically just a mindset, probably perfectly doable within the boundaries of learning. So if they become widespread, they will stop being effective, most likely within a few years. Just like the cartoon scarecrow with a bunch of crows resting on it, it wasn't dangerous, so the crows stopped caring.

So, considering adaptation would take years and depending on widespread adoption, this seems a very useful tool to employ for some time. Very far from “stupid things humans do”.

Arbitrarily prefer on bird over another, and believe that you can do something about it with passive-aggressive architecture. That is neither dog stupidity, zebra stupidity nor jellyfish stupidity. That is human stupidity in action.

Well, you can do something.

It isn't arbitrary - it is preferring native species to invasive species. Whether you agree with the logic or not - it isn't arbitrary.

The behavior of most small animals is a good deal more stereotyped than it seems, and the experimental evidence shows they do have an inherent disposition to avoid this setup. Unless these devices become commonplace, there may be little pressure for them to adapt (this would not mean these devices would be pointless, as the main goal is to feed other species rather than cut off food from the sparrows.)

Even if the name sounds like an infomercial product, the science seems to be legit.

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