I need a bird icon.

[hannah]

I've been feeding the pigeons long enough they understand certain gestures: I'll mime opening the window, and they won't fly off in fear when it happens. They'll see me do the gesture, and know that soon, I'll put out seed for them. I've gotten to know a few of them, too - not by name, but the distinctive morphs with light red feathers all over, or white primary feathers standing out from the rest of its dark plumage. The light red one is a bit of a jerk, too.

I get mourning doves, too. They're far more seasonal, and way more skittish. They know what the gestures mean and recognize my voice, and they're still not easily tamed. It's nice to see the contrast of reasonably trusting and still quite wild.

Today I was sipping some coffee, and I honestly, genuinely, had the mug to my mouth and stopped drinking in surprise when I saw what was out the window.

It was a sparrow.

Far too wild for me to even hope of teaching it any gestures, basically no chance of getting it to trust me enough to stay on the ledge even with the windows closed and plenty of seed laid out for it, and flying off a moment after I saw it.

I'll see hawks and seagulls and crows flying, but rarely are we close enough for me to really get the sense of them as creatures. This sparrow, though - very much a little wild animal.

Comments

[bethctg]

Did you know that it is National Bird Feeding Month (and tomorrow is Feed the Birds Day)? ;)

[yourlibrarian]

So true about the sparrows. Mike jokes about how they have us trained, because we can see the food plate from our dining room table and are careful not to startle them. And they are unconcerned if I'm standing there, but any movement triggers them. In fact they go in and out in waves continually with no trigger that I can spot.

That's neat that the other birds have learned though. I can't say I've noticed anything of that kind with our visitors even though we've been putting food out for years. In fact, we've been wondering where the mourning doves have gone. We used to have them all the time -- they'd sit on our shelves and warm up near our windows -- yet haven't seen any for a few months now.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Birbs! \o/ I used to feed pigeons way back when we lived in the city center. Some of them would perch on my hands, and I could carry them around the room.

[blackmare]

There was a pigeon I fed for a while, and I was very surprised how smart she was. Pigeons get a lot of hate and I don’t really understand why. They’re pretty cool.

Where I am, it can be hard to attract species OTHER than sparrows to a feeder. The Sparrow Mob is large and hungry, and will run off the chickadees, juncos, and anything else they can collectively out-muscle.

[used_songs]

My favorite birds to watch are the grackles. They are loud and obnoxious and strut around with oily black feathers and I love them.