I let a baby bird nest in my hair for 84 days

[sliken]

My back yard had a colony? Community? Flock? Large group of Magpies. They would collectively complain when I was in the back yard. One day my dog had a slow wag which means they found something interesting. I found a baby bird, unharmed. I found a nest nearby and it had been windy recently. So I took a small cardboard box, duct taped it into the tree, and put the baby bird in it. I checked later and found the mom feeding the baby.

Ever since then, there was no complaints when I entered the back yard, and in fact they would often land on my hammock and would balance impressively (keeping the head still while the body swung) and peer in at us.

Clearly I had moved from the alarm list to the friend list, community wide. I'd often see a magpie on my fence or in a tree watching me quietly.

[jfengel]

colony? Community? Flock? Large group of Magpies

"Mischief", supposedly, among other terms. But such "terms of venery" are usually Victorian parlor games, not actually used in practice. Any of the words you used is fine.

[seba_dos1]

The whole corvid family is incredibly social and intelligent. They can remember and recognize human faces, and quickly deduce what's important to you (your laundry, for example), so you really don't want to end up on their "enemy" list.

[valarauko]

> colony? Community? Flock? Large group of Magpies

charm/mischief of magpies

[callamdelaney]

If you stick around long enough, you'll be able to guess almost perfectly in which paper an article appears based on its headline alone.

[wwilim]

This problem just begs for a machine learning solution

[at_a_remove]

As a child, my cat found a baby flying squirrel in the grass. The vet speculated that, due to its very small size, it had been kicked from the nest. The cat was very upset about the whole thing and alerted us to the situation (part Siamese, she had a particular cry which meant "There is a Problem and you must come handle the Problem!"), which ended with us raising him. I was definitely the preferred spot for the flying squirrel: hiding in my hair, my shirt or shirt pocket, and so on. If the cage was open and I was home, he was on me.

I had to get used to him just landing on me out of nowhere because, well, flying squirrel.

[lisper]

Did you name it Rocky? Please tell me you named it Rocky!

[rwmj]

The story reminds me a bit of the scientist who raised turkey hatchlings as a "mother turkey" and learned their calls and behaviour. Really fascinating documentary if you can find it: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2496522/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0133r58 Edit: It has its own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Life_as_a_Turkey

[denton-scratch]

See "King Solomon's Ring", by Konrad Lorentz. He describes shuffling around his garden in a squatting posture, followed by a column of imprinted greylag goslings. They only recognised him as their mum when he was under a meter tall, hence the squatting.

I'm not sure that an 84-day-old bird still counts as a "baby bird"; don't most hatchlings fledge within 30 days or so?

[dijit]

Beautiful read. It’s interesting how helping others can be so fulfilling, almost like the default human condition is as caretakers.

I can’t say I would have done the same in her shoes, but it must have been very life affirming to essentially save a life and have its life married to yours.

[cf100clunk]

The Jains were on to something over 11 centuries ago:

https://wikiless.org/wiki/Ahimsa_in_Jainism

I am not a Jain, but I hold a deep respect for their duty of Ahimsa as being at the core of sensible living.

[dessant]

And you did not share a picture of your bird.

Here is one: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fgiMlnbDN6I/hqdefault.jpg

[denton-scratch]

You lookin' at my bird?

https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/animals-bir...

For those unfamiliar, that phrase is fighting talk that might be uttered by a very insecure male, out with his girlfriend.

Incidentally, the cartoonstock image has a Copyright watermark on it. I believe that image is copyright Punch magazine, around 1968. If cartoonstock purchased the copyright, then I assert that it's fair use to post a link here.

[petemir]

I also found that fact odd. She's a photographer, I expected more visual content added to the text :(. It was quite enjoyable anyway.

[grenoire]

Article hotlinks a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgiMlnbDN6I

[Fiahil]

Thanks !

The bird's size matters a lot: It would be much more difficult to let this happen with these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_black-backed_gull

[wanderr]

Please don't do this. Habituating wildlife to humans is not doing them any favors, it usually leads to their early demise. First make sure they are truly abandoned, most of the time mom is nearby. Second, if mom is truly not around, take the animal to a credentialed wildlife rehabber as soon as you can.

[merrywhether]

I’m often curious about situations like this, as I had similar thoughts while reading. Assuming the bird was truly abandoned, is it better to imperfectly raise them yourself or to leave them to die? Not everyone is going to want or be able to track down a wildlife rehab expert.

[Cd00d]

That is the most click-bait headline I have ever read that actually delivers content both relevant to the headline and interesting!

[maxbaines]

Also the vast majority of birds do not live or sleep in the nests they make, the nests are for chicks.

https://slate.com/technology/2014/01/where-do-birds-sleep-ro...

[pvaldes]

Clickbait title.

I had a young pet finch Lonchura that, sometimes, not all the time, landed on my shoulders and head to rest for a while.

[svisser]

Ironically, her husband's name is Robin.

[canbus]

Plot twist, her name is Batman!

[mschuster91]

> When I returned, in January, I’d watch out for him when the finches flew past. Every now and then, one would hang back, on a branch, and stare at me. I still cry when I think of him.

Now who's cutting onions here... having freshly raised two kittens to adulthood, I can say it's a highly rewarding experience to assist new life in growth.

[gizmore]

[OMNIA - "Earth Warrior" - sneak peek bootleg live recording](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfN_ZMmiLQw) - bird nest edition

[slibhb]

I suspect the border between cute and sickening is an important pychological attribute that explains vast variations in human behavior.

[ape4]

On seeing the headline I wondered about the poop issue. But now see the bird wasn't always in her hair.

[mhb]

Reminds me of the great Radiolab botfly story: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/segments/91678...

[gwbas1c]

I wish there were pictures!

[js2]

There'a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgiMlnbDN6I

[LadyCailin]

I don’t normally come to Hacker News to have a good cry.

[bigprovolone]

All I can think about is the episode of "family guy" where Peter has birds nest in his beard

[inanutshellus]

From the misleading headline, I'd agree. Imagining a bird roosting for 3 months in your hair is insane.

The article tells another story, though. She just raised a bird. She fed it, and it slept in a box. When it was old enough to do so, it would sit on her shoulder and tug her hair around itself.

Doesn't seem like such a big deal if you read the article.

Here's a video of the author, as provided in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgiMlnbDN6I

[lnxg33k1]

I kinda agree with you, but I had conflicting feelings, one part of me was thinking oh this look so sweet but meanwhile another part was thinking wtf am I really reading about someone letting a bird live in her hair, not sure yet what to think about my time management capabilities sometimes

[Sakos]

Funny, for me it's this comment.

Edit: What particularly annoys me is how techies are so intolerant of different life experiences. Fine, you wouldn't do what she did. Good for you. How is it then okay to denigrate that person's experience and how is that acceptable on HN? How is that kind of intolerance and closed-mindedness acceptable?

[drcongo]

Absolute Peak Guardian.

[jmclnx]

I thought it was nice, not quite what the title indicated

[supermatt]

clearly you dont read much.

[sonicggg]

I 100% knew it had to be a well-off white woman doing this without even opening the article.