A story from Seattle some ten years ago described a young girl’s remarkable friendship with crows, and her collection of gifts they brought her. At first, when she accidentally dropped bits of food, she was amazed when a crow swooped in to claim it. She began saving parts of her lunch for feeding the crows after school, and soon the crows were waiting for her at the school bus stop.
Eventually, she and her mother started to leave a small tray of peanuts out for the crows; occasionally, the crows would leave a gift for them on the tray or nearby. Ultimately, she had quite a collection of bits of bone, shell, buttons and the like. Her story was told in a delightful 2015 BBC News article.
This story identifies the primary way one might befriend a bird: food. For birds, getting enough to eat every day is life’s #1 assignment. They have no grocery stores to rely on.
But those Seattle crows found a young girl’s grocery store, and she and her mom also provided a drinking fountain.
If you wish to give it a try, choose the location carefully, with bird hiding/escape places nearby. You should be able to watch the activities easily from inside, and eventually be able to move closer. Follow a regular schedule that your visitors can learn and depend on.
Watch from a window at first, trying to learn something about your visitors (including possibly identifying them as individuals). Then move outside, always moving slowly. You can make quiet bird sounds, but do not hide – always let them know where you are. And don’t get too close to your grocery store. Ultimately, it has to be the bird’s decision to come closer to you.
Black-capped and Chestnut-sided Chickadees are fearless and will soon approach your hand if it has sunflower seeds available. If/when this happens, stay calm and try to quietly socialize with your visitor. It is possible to develop a rapport with one bird and then others will follow. There’s food available, after all. Juncos also will approach their friendly human grocer in a manner similar to chickadees.
In her backyard birding book, Amy Tan writes of developing this type of close connection with a specific Anna’s Hummingbird that eventually would visit a small disc feeder placed on her hand. Not all bird species are willing to do this; some are very cautious by nature, only sneaking out from their hiding place to grab a seed and then scurry away.
Crows, ravens and jays, all closely related species, are considered smart (or at least smarter than other birds). They are also curious and can learn about your routines. But crows have a large territory that they patrol for food, so you might have to study the daily habits of your local crows to establish an initial contact with them.
I am not sure whether it’s possible to make friends with Scrub Jays. Each pair has a home territory and if that includes the vicinity of your home, you might try to draw them close with a few peanuts (in shell, non-salted). Once they add those peanuts to their daily diet, they will notice that you are holding a few more in your open palm. Perhaps you can overcome their natural wariness.
Another jay species, the Canada Jay (or Gray Jay), lives in the mountains and visits hikers as they take a break along the trail. These birds seem to be totally unafraid and usually need no coaxing to visit your hand to grab a snack.
If you want to learn more about crows, you will enjoy reading the 2005 book In the Company of Crows and Ravens. The principal author is John Marzluff, a UW professor who has been studying urban crows in the Seattle area for decades. The book includes beautiful illustrations by Tony Angell, a renowned Pacific Northwest artist and sculptor. (One of Angell’s sculptures, Otters, can be found in the downtown Olympia library, where it has been patted by several generations of visiting children).
This book is filled with information about crow and raven behavior and numerous stories similar to the one above. Marzlaff makes a good case for crows having a “culture” that they pass on, both between generations and with their neighbors. Marzlaff recommends using raw peanuts in the shell to attract crows, both because they recognize them as food and can easily hear the rattling sound of the peanuts in their shells.
One warning though: Success has its own hazards. The story of the young girl in Seattle has a sad ending. The crows she befriended invited their friends, and their friends invited more friends. Eventually there were so many crows the girl’s neighbors sued, claiming the feeding was causing a nuisance and devaluing their property, and the feeding routine had to be severely reduced.
As in all of life, it’s important to choose your friends carefully.
George Walter is environmental program manager at the Nisqually Indian Tribe’s natural resources department: he also has a 40+ year interest in bird watching. He may be reached at george@theJOLTnews.com
Photos for this column are provided by Liam Hutcheson, a 17-year-old Olympia area birder and avid photographer.
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mtndancer
This sounds great. But beware: Gray Jays are very aggressive! They will swoop in and eat your own lunch that you have in your hand while you are picnicking in the mountains. They will perch on your trekking pole until they get what they want. If they get too much human food like white bread (much of which is empty calories from a bird’s point of view) it probably will not help them survive the winter in the wild. And crows will eat the beans that you plant as seeds unless you cover them with cages.
Putting seeds in a feeder is in my view the best way to feed birds, rather than encouraging them to lose their wariness of large creatures such as us, some of whom are dangerous to them.
Friday, September 6 Report this
joycetogden
My neighbor leaves out peanuts. 2 years ago there were Scrub Jays that were bringing the peanuts here, then trying to bury them in my porch planter. I did not appreciate dirt all over the deck where their digging activity occurred!
Friday, September 6 Report this
Georgewalter
Another cross current between Jill's garden column and this bird column.
Saturday, September 7 Report this