Hacker News Reader

Comment by Lerc | Hacker News Reader

We have quite a few birds around our house and it has been quite gratifying to see how much they accept your presence after a while. While making coffee yesterday morning, there were three tauhau hopping around in the tree outside the window, less than a meter away, unconcerned. If I go outside they'll keep to about 2 meters. When I'm working in the garage, a piwakawaka often comes in to watch me. If I'm digging in the garden there are a few (I'm going to guess starlings) that watch me digging in the garden close enough I'm surprised they don't land on me. As soon as I stop digging, they're in the dirt rummaging for what I might have turned up. Collectively they have all decided that I'm not out to get them so just go about their business. Except for the piwakawaka, which does seem to go out of its way to just watch me make things.

It possibly helps that I have a dog that will not tolerate a cat on the property and seems to believe that birds don't exist.

View on HN

From a bird’s point of view, large mammals must be interesting. You are just doing a little digging in the garden, but it’s an absolutely tremendous amount of earth you’ve moved compared to their ability to dig.

I’m always curious about animals’ perception of us. I think they don’t really have the concepts of things like doors, lids, etc, as constructed devices that are made to be manipulated. I wonder if they think we’re very clever at getting into things. And does the dog worry every day that we won’t find food?

What I find interesting to think about is how much more routine viewing things from high above must be for birds than it is for us.

Looking at a city on Google Maps with satellite mode on was already a revealing experience when it came out.

Now imagine a live view of that with everything moving, as part of your regular environment.

I wonder if smarter birds (such as corvids) might have developed some sort of understanding of the large-scale organization of our cities, or how road and railway networks function. Not because they somehow figured out human civilization but because they literally see those things right in front of them every day.

> I think they don’t really have the concepts of things like doors, lids, etc, as constructed devices that are made to be manipulated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon

Field research from some time ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqTt_jDDCio

For anybody else also doing image searches for these birds, it's tauhou. Seemingly these colonized New Zealand in 1832.

Noted. Also, they are so tiny. It's not until you see them making a sparrow look large that it really hits you.

  It possibly helps that I have a dog that will not tolerate a cat on the property and seems to believe that birds don't exist.

Which is very odd, considering that all birds are cats. [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIl1VuGTk3g

Reply on news.ycombinator.com