Smart birds

[The Snark]

A Myna couple chose to make a nest in a hole in our porch roof. The cat prowls there and they know it. So aside from mercilessly divebombing the cat they lined the entrance to the nest with bougainvillea twigs, aka natures barbed wire.

 

[Najakeeper]

So cool to see these things. There is a species of African finches that build huge communal nests, and they barb wire the entrance against mambas .

 

[The Snark]

Here is one little zoop I thought was as smart as it gets. A family had a fenced in yard with a gate. The gate was always locked but any family member and certain friends could just walk up to it and it would unlock by itself. On the far side of the yard he kept several birds in cages. I was offered to be granted access to the back yard. I was taken up to one of the bird cages, he had me stick my arm in, holding a tidbit. The bird came down onto my arm, took it and retreated to his perch. Repeat 5 times. I could then enter the yard whenever I wished.

When someone wanted to get into the yard that the bird didn't know it would retreat to it's upper perch. When it was someone it knew, it went down to the lower perch. Of course, the mechanics that unlatched the gate was connected to the perches and the bird was infallible.