Human Nature and Birds

We once had a little parakeet we took care of for some French friends, who aptly named him Napoleon.  He was allowed outside of his cage occasionally, and strutted about on our furniture and stole all manner of things.  Then he announced his pride and daring while he played with his conquests.  He cared not a fig about the mess he made strewing his food about and never made any effort to clean up after himself.  I was rather surprised that I liked him, but he was a cute little thing.  I can understand how Josephine felt.

Not all birds are so cute.  Seagulls for example.  My husband once spied a seagull trying to get french fries out of a plastic baggie.  The seagull would pick up the baggie and shake it, but the thing was zip locked shut, so shaking it did not work.  A crow watched this, and when the seagull gave up in frustration, the crow swooped down from a lamppost.  It then poked a hole in the baggie with its beak and drew out the french fry.  When the seagull, who had not gone far away, saw this, he screamed like the seagulls in Finding Nemo, “Mine! Mine!”  He flew back to claim his french fries. 

Alas, he had not observed the crow very well.  The seagull shook the baggie vigorously but no french fries came out.  He gave up again and the crow returned to carefully draw out a fry.  This was repeated until the fries were gone, and never did the seagull figure it out and get one.  He’d much prefer screaming than observing.

Screaming seems to come naturally for some birds, or at least crowing.  Out at Ft. Nisqually we have hens and a rooster.  The rooster is a mighty lad, and watches over his hens with ardent fervor.  Once we had a politician come out to give a speech.  In the middle of it, the rooster decided he’d heard enough and tried to out crow the politician.  I can’t say the mountain men didn’t laugh about it.  The rooster, at least, was magnificent.

Speaking of magnificent, those male birds can certainly get puffed up with their beauty.  My husband and I once watched a male pigeon, in iridescent splendor, try to puff out his chest and impress a female.  She turned away and pecked at the ground.  He hurried around to catch her eye, and she walked away. 

He tried and failed to impress for more than five minutes.  At last, our woeful male gave up and wandered away.  The little princess would not have that!  She ran over and pecked at him so he would continue to woo her.  My husband, for some reason, thought this was hilarious.  I think he was reading too much into it.  We don’t know anyone like that.  Just adoring females around our nest.  Most of the time.