Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with birds

Help me relive a happy childhood memory!

srrh — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:59:16 -0800

Sometime around '93-95, when I was living in Plymouth, NC, my elementary school class took a field trip to a bird farm. I would love to track down the place where I went. As a child, I lived in Plymouth, NC, and attended Pines Elementary School. In 2nd or 3rd grade, my class took a field trip to a bird farm. I know that I had a teacher named Mrs. Byrd in 2nd or 3rd grade, but I'm not sure which, and I don't know who the other teacher might have been. That's mostly beside the point, however, as the school website is very sparse, and there isn't even a teacher directory there for me to try to hunt down my old teacher with.

I give you the location of the school because, since it was a field trip, the bird farm could not have been too very far away from it. Maybe an hour or two at the most? I have done some googling and found a few bird farms, but most of them seem to be in central/Western NC, and so too far away. I haven't lived in NC since I was 7 years old, so I don't remember the geography at all.

As for the bird farm itself, I use that phrase because I remember specifically that my teacher and the people there referred to it as a bird farm, rather than an aviary or some other term. It was a small farm, and I'm not even sure if the animals were used for eggs or slaughter, or if it was more of a petting-zoo type thing. They had other birds besides your typical chickens and turkeys -- I specifically remember peacocks, and I believe they had swans and geese as well.

Hopefully someone here lives or has lived in NC and has some idea what I'm talking about, or maybe someone has an idea for a way I can search to point me in the right direction. Thanks for the help!

Its The Birds come alive!

lilkeith07 — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:02:30 -0800

What are these black birds that took over my yard today? Today there was at least a couple hundred black birds that were complete covering my mainly wooded yard. They were smaller then crows but bigger then robins. They would fly to the ground rest for a little while then fly up to the top of the oak trees and then across the street to the top of pine trees where there was plenty of pine cones, I assumed they were eating. What made me ask this was that there was just hundreds on them, and we see them once a year and its always the same thing, they land in our yard and the fly away after about 1/2 hour. This was in Central Mass by the Wachusett Reservoir.

What kind of bird is this?

basicchannel — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:20:33 -0800

What kind of bird is this? (photos: 1, 2) There are a large group of birds that nest in the lot next to my work. They are extremely aggressive and frequently kill each other (leaving their carcasses to rot in the disused lot). They nest in the very tops of these Eucalyptus trees and appear to have very little fear of humans. I've never noticed these birds anywhere other than this relatively small area. Any ideas?

The photos were taken in Long Beach, CA.

Birdwatching over IP?

fake — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:05:33 -0800

I love my mom, and she loves birds. I want to put her bird feeder online so she can watch it at work. Is a networked webcam what I'm looking for? What are my options? Cost is a pretty big factor, as is complexity. Ideally, I'd just connect a router to their network and somehow, magically, there would be a feed of this thing online.

Given where I would like to place it, a cobbled-together PC+webcam will not work for me.

How can I get the birds to stop eating my window screens?

Askr — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:47:39 -0800

How can I get the birds to stop eating my window screens? I've just discovered that birds have been eating my window screens. Well, not eating them, of course, but apparently stealing the individual strands to use in building their nests. There were formerly a couple of worn out places and holes in this one screen, I guess because this place is old and it's the beach, and they have now turned that into six inches of missing screen all the way across the bottom.

How can I get them to stop, short of just riding out nest-building season? I've seen this question asked online but have not seen any good answers. Is there some kind of chili pepper spray that would keep them away? A little troll scarecrow? There's only about an inch of exterior window sill to work with or I'd try the plastic owl people use to keep pigeons away. I don't want to put cardboard over the area as I saw suggested somewhere because it will take me forever to grow out a matching mullet.

I guess I'll haveg to replace this one screen, but there are other screens in slightly worn condition too and I'd like to do something to them before they become targets too. CURSE YOU, LITTLE BIRRRDS.

What feeder is best at attracting cardinals.?

MaryDellamorte — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:11:43 -0800

In your experience, what is the best feeder for attracting cardinals? I've got two feeders, one that attracts finches and another one that attracts a variety of little birds. I'll see a cardinal or two every once in a while eating the stray sunflower seeds that have fallen onto the porch, but I want to attract more. The feeder also needs to be squirrel resistant. Lastly, do cardinals like sunflower seeds the best?

How do I get these mourning dove squatters off my air conditioner?

tastybrains — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:18:03 -0800

This weekend I learned that two mourning doves are building or have built a nest on top of my master bedroom air conditioner (the only air conditioner in the house). This is not a good situation, as we will need to run the a/c come summer, and I do not want the blood of baby doves on my hands. What can I do? I only noticed the doves this weekend, fluttering around the window, coo-ing, doing all that stuff that doves tend to do. It didn't occur to me that the scritching that kept waking me up all morning Saturday and Sunday was NOT my cats being mischievous, but rather doves building a nest on my air conditioner. I am a deep sleeper and I'm used to tuning out noises due to the aforementioned mischievous cats, so this could have been going on for awhile.

If they are just starting to build their nest, I think my best course of action is to destroy it and turn the a/c's fan on so that they are discouraged from rebuilding it in that location. However, I can't see the nest to determine whether they have built the nest yet or whether they have laid eggs yet. There's no way for me to get a good look, either.

What I can tell is that one dove flew away when I tapped on the inside of the a/c, while another nervously peeked out from on top. Does that mean they have already laid eggs?

Other info that may help:

This is in a woody area of southern New Hampshire.
The air conditioner is an in-wall room unit that wasn't covered over the winter.
Birds really like to make their home in my house. We had a woodpecker in the siding last year.

What should I do? How can I get rid of them? Short of letting my cats out, how can I let birds know "you can hang out in the yard & live in the trees, but please lay off the air conditioner, siding, and attic, please!"?

I would prefer not to have the blood of baby doves on my hands if at all possible.

What type of bird is this?

anniek — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:48:14 -0800

I saw this bird this morning in the bottle brush in my back yard. It kept giving out a single "tweet" every ten seconds or so. One of the photos is an action shot, but I've never seen such a flashy bird where I live - Los Angeles. Does anyone know what it is?

Can you help me spot the spots?

HostBryan — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:49:59 -0800

Could you help me identify some commercials my girlfriend found to be adorable? I was wondering if the hive mind could help me figure out what two advertisements from a couple years ago were and what they promoted. My girlfriend thought they were adorable and has been asking if I can find them on Youtube, but I haven't had much luck.

Both commercials, I believe, were for banks or some other kind of financial service. The first featured a group of windup birds marching in unison towards and into a hole while a background singer crooned "Follow the crowd, follow the crowd!" One of the birds breaks away and finds happiness and fulfillment with whatever the ad was selling.

The second was an ad featuring a "cutout" of a piggy bank (it lacked fine detail but was red or pink and had white outlines, slot, and eyes). The piggy bank rolled around past various numbers and percentages. It may or may not have gotten bigger. I have seen similar ads for HSBC, so I think it could be associated with that company.

Know that finding these ads will bring joy to a lovely young woman. I appreciate your effort in advance.

What bird is this over Berlin?

Your Time Machine Sucks — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:01:47 -0800

Blurrybirdidentificationfilter: what raptor is this? Hello,

I was on my balcony the other day when I noticed a bird doing the usual bird-of-prey things, and figured it was one of our local kestrels about to do in a sparrow, but then I saw that it was a lot less flappy and notably bigger. It was too far away to identify by sight but I was able to get some (truly awful) photos of it (sorry, it was very fast and distant, and I really underexposed and then had to push the levels in order to see anything other than a silhouette):

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

I've included some of the worst photos just so you can see the tailfeather shape during a few different types of flying.

I haven't been able to recognize it from the photos and my bird books are not helping. It was probably slightly smaller than a crow, and the 'fingers' give me the impression it's a hawk or harrier of some kind, but I'm not an expert. Anyone recognize this bird? Location is Berlin, Germany, and we're on a waterway and see a fair amount of unusual birds due to the former-iron-curtain wilderness effect and intense local preservation and veterinary efforts, so suggestions don't have to be restricted only to birds you'd be likely to see in farther-west cities.

Thanks!

Birds are procreating in my petunias!

halogen — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:54:34 -0800

A pair of mourning doves have started a nest in the flower box outside my 3rd floor bedroom window. How do I reconcile our conflict of interest? Our 3rd floor balcony has a wall of French doors with a faux balcony railing on which we keep several flower boxes of petunias, and I just noticed this morning that a small mourning dove has started building a nest in it. Now, I don't mind having birds raise a family there (in fact, I'd love to photograph the younglings if I get a chance, and the whole thing would just make me happy regardless), but it really isn't an appropriate spot for a home: I like to open the windows at night and during the day when the weather allows it, and I need to regularly water my flowers.

The nest is still very small: should I move it somewhere, and would that be equivalent to destroying it? I just read here that doves are notoriously quick to abandon their nests (including eggs and young offspring) when they perceive danger--should I just keep opening my windows as usual and hope that the doves won't come back and seek build another nest elsewhere before the female lays eggs? One of them quickly flew away when it saw me walking around this morning, that's how I noticed the nest in the first place.

I feel rather guilty about inquiring how to evict the young family, so I'd like to do what I can to help out: would installing a birdhouse on my uncovered roof terrace attract any birds (doves or otherwise)? There aren't any suitable trees on our property, just several 6' tall Italian cypress trees. What else can I do to ensure that birds keep coming to my city?

SoCal bird places

Nattie — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:44:38 -0800

Looking for avian resources -- vets, toy stores, etc -- in SoCal! We're moving to SoCal this week with our Congo African Grey Parrot and cockatiel. We're going to be living around Arcadia or Pasadena, but we're willing to drive an hour or so in any direction to visit places. We're looking for the following:

- Places that have a wide selection of bird toys. Usually the store will specialize in bird toys; we're not looking for something like PetCo or PetsMart.

- A vet that is a trained avian specialist. This is extremely important. There are a lot of vets that can mostly only handle dogs and cats, but say they will see birds as well. We have had terrible experiences with these vets and our cockatiel has a long, difficult medical history with something a non-specialist would not be able to handle successfully.

How To Be A Concierge To A Couple Of Swallows?

MiguelCardoso — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:38:23 -0800

Spring is raging in Portugal: the air is choking with pollen and musk and every flower, insect, bird and mammal is happily and successfully shouting "Fuck me now!". Meanwhile, a loving couple of dark blue-and-white barn swallows have taken a fancy to the air conditioner in my study, in our new house in Sintra. We love having them, of course, but, being barn swallows, they need to nest somewhere safer and more accessible, although indoors in the sense of being minimally protected. We've been shooing them away for a week now, with broken hearts, but they keep coming back through my open windows as, for a selfish week, we let them fly about and begin to settle in my study, because we loved looking at them and listening to them complain and rejoice. This was an evil encouragement on our part. Now, when we stand up and clap them away, they seem not to believe we want them out, for their own good. They just keep coming back, ever more enchanting and pleading. What can we do, to guiltily steer them to a better nesting place, given that there are thousands of these places available around us and all Portuguese consider them as the luckiest birds there are, apart from it being a crime to disturb them in any way? Any advise would be much welcomed and thanked. Many thanks for any humane, considerate suggestions!

a great coffee table book about birds, etc?

dahliachewswell — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:43:20 -0800

I'm looking for a big beautiful coffee table book about birds, wetlands or nature or similar ...preferably with lots of pictures and less text. It's a gift. Any suggestions? It would also be great if it focused on the Pacific Northwest OR North America OR it could feature images from around the world... but if its focusing on a specific region it needs to be PacNor or N. America.

Thanks!

Where to buy fake birds in Toronto?

crawfo — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:20:25 -0800

last minute panic costume: going as woman from The Birds need to find some fake birds to buy in Toronto. . . any chance someone has a line on these? tried the dollar store, but no luck. thank you!!

Panasonic TZ5 or Canon G10?

bchaplin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:30:19 -0800

For getting shots of far-away animals, is it better to have a 9MP camera with a 10X zoom or a 14MP camera with a 5X zoom? On business trips I like to take a small digicam with me. Recently I was in a hotel by the ocean with some birds flying around, and unfortunately, with my camera's weak zoom was not able to capture them very well. (Some attempts are here and here.) I am considering purchasing a camera to take along for those occasions when I unexpectedly see some wildlife I'd like to photograph. I am torn between the Panasonic TZ5 (9MP with 10X zoom), because it is almost as pocketable as my current camera and has a 10X zoom, and the Canon G10 (14.7MP with 5X zoom), which is still small enough to take on trips though not quite as compact, and was highly recommended by a photographer friend. The Canon G10 is a better camera and has more manual controls, which would be fun to use. For capturing far-away birds like I tried to do here, could I blow up an image from a 14.7MP camera with a 5X zoom to get the equivalent of a 10X zoom?

I know megapixels do not equal image quality! And I do have a DSLR with some nice lenses, which I use for photographic excursions. I am basically looking for a camera that I could use for those "unexpected" photographic opportunities.

Seven sisters. Haunted house. Birds. Anyone know it?

ricochet biscuit — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:54:09 -0800

Another mostly forgotten book recollection begging to be brought into the light. A friend of mine (not on Metafilter) has mentioned a book she enjoyed years ago but has long forgotten the author and title; if AskMe can help me identify it based on what little I know of it, it might make my Christmas shopping that much easier and make her happy...

Seven sisters live in a haunted house. Only one can take human form at a time; the other six are stuck in the form of birds (perhaps swans).

That's it. Apart from that, I know it is a novel, published at least twenty years ago. Not a lot to go on, but last time I did this, I had an answer in twenty minutes.

Anybody?

Slightly morbid bird question

Skyanth — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:10:17 -0800

Why do you never see dead birds in the city? I live in the city and close to water. My surroundings are full of ducks, swans, pigeons (yich) and gulls. Yet I never see one dead, except maybe if it was run over by a car. Why is that? Is there some secret bird cemetery they go to to die? Surely the gutters should be full of dead pigeons or something. God knows there's enough of them around. Or are they eaten by insects in record time? Disclaimer: I do not have an actual wish to see dead birds. I've just been wondering about this since forever.

birds of a certain feather

ryecatcher — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:12:20 -0800

BirdFilter: Looking out over Watt's Cove in Tenants Harbor, Maine I keep seeing a flock of small birds flying back and forth. They look to be brownish in color but then! They briefly flash silver at the slightest change in direction. Any ideas?

Diversifying the urban birdfeeder

palindromic — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:53:37 -0800

I want to diversify the population hanging out at my urban birdfeeder. House sparrows, pigeons and starlings are beginning to irritate me. I've had up suet feeders, seed feeders, black oil sunflower seeds. An oriole/finch feeder. I keep getting the same three birds, with the exception of one very exciting cardinal that shows up occasionally.

I live on a tree-lined street in Detroit in an old neighborhood. Is there any way of attracting birds that aren't ordinarily present in urban neighborhoods?

I do plan on refraining from nesting boxes, so I'm mostly looking for suggestions on feed, feeders, plants that I could put in our 3'X6' plot in front our house.

As an aside, we do get the occasional pheasant and peacock (longish story), so if I could get a little posse of those guys hanging out...

Trying to identify Washington State bird by sound heard at night.

DCTapeworm — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 23:03:34 -0800

Please help me identify this bird in Washington State (nocturnal). I didn't see it, but I heard it. It was a long screech, starting at a low pitch, and ending at a high pitch. The screech lasted a full second or so. There was one right in front of my house, and another in the backyard. If it helps for region, I'm out in Snohomish where there's tons of pine trees around.

ID these Eastern US birds of prey?

The Confessor — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:01:46 -0800

Can anyone here identify these (apparent) birds of prey? The photograph was taken in Salem Massachusetts, but more than one mile away from any saltwater shore. What Bird narrowed the possibilities to Red-Tailed Hawk, Red-Shouldered Hawk, and Osprey, none of which seemed likely from pictures.

Additional photographs are available here and here: click the photographs link to expand the section, browse using the greater-than less-than symbols, and click on a photograph to load a larger version in a new window.

Birders, bring a novice into the fold!

palindromic — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:46:56 -0800

Birders: I need your help! Yes, I have a guide. Yes, binoculars. Yes, I wander around heavily wooded areas with my fingers twisted in knots, hoping to see a measly robin so I can feel like mine is a life not wasted. Now help me be better! Please, dear hive mind, tell me it's not all hard work and practice. Tell me that there are shortcuts and awesome tips to finding the sweet birds in the high branches.

I've been to the top googled sites, and man. I want something more personal.

I went birdwatching in earnest for the first time this weekend up in the Sleeping Bear Sand Dune area, and I came away with 20 or so positively identified birds, but frankly most of them sucked. Chipping sparrows? House wrens? Bah. I want scarlet tanagers and the like.

Tell me. How do I find them? What guides, equipment and so on do you recommend? I live in a townhouse in Detroit with no yard, so feeders are kind of tough, but if you know of feeders that work well in very urban locales then tell me all.

No advice too arcane to consider! When I find something elusive, you can accept my giddy and distant yelp as your cosmic reward.

Scared bird herd (flock)

djstig — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:22:36 -0800

Why are some birds less scared than other birds? Walking home from work today I saw something that I had witnessed on a number of occasions involving a flock of birds. I was approaching a flock of around 15-20 sparrows, about 50 metres away, when there was a loud noise which frightened the flock away. As I got closer to the speck where the birds where grazing/hanging out I noticed that one bird was still there, upon getting too close to it, off it flew.

I was wondering why this one bird, and other birds in similar situations, hung around longer rather than going along with the safety of the flock. There are a few reasons that I thought it might hang round longer than its mates....
1) To try and get the last bits of food that everyone else left - but this would mean exposing itself to other dangers, and are the arse end of other birds feed worth risking your life for?
2) Deafness? Do birds go deaf? Maybe it didn't hear the initial kerfuffle, so decided to hang around longer until a predator caught its eye.
3) Stupidity - much like number 2, but with the bird deciding it was in no danger.
4) Intelligence - realising that it was in no danger from the initial noise, so only leaving when it was really necessary.

I also wondered if these birds showing no fear become the "top dog" of the group, and there was some kind of avian chicken game going on that we are not aware of.

Can anyone shed light on this long rambling question?

Does anyone know of any resources/suggestions on getting trapped birds out of office buildings?

BlackStrapMolasses — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:21:46 -0800

I work in a pretty large office building, and while walking the bi-level lobby floors I always hear trapped birds chirping and see them hopping around... I have no idea how they get in, there multiple sets of revolving doors, and are also regular side glass doors that are never left hanging open. The only other entrance is a subway entrance, with multiple revolving doors before anyone is able to access outside. More detail following:

I've overheard someone once say that he brought in birdseed and left it in some of the planters to feed them. But I was wondering if anyone has ever worked as a janitor in a building and had to address the situation. This can't be a unique problem, and I'm wondering if there are any resources that I can contact, or if there's anything I can do aside from throwing birdseed at them. I don't want to call Animal Control, that name just has a negative connotation to me, I associate "control" with "kill"?

I'm not really trying to take on solving the problem myself, just wondering what others have done in this situation/previous experiences.