of birds & food

was having my routine breakfast of kopi-o and had a couple of fritters this morning (green bean fritters, hum chin paeng, etc) and noted a couple of pigeons pecking away on the floor. i offered some mashed green beans and next thing i knew, quite a few pigeons started to congregate. thought it was interesting and threw a few pieces of hum chin paeng too. by that time, 2 crows, a few mynahs and sparrows had appeared. the following was what i observed...

(1) pigeons flocked together when there was food. but they fought for their food like nobody business and ate it on the spot. however when faced with a crow, they dispersed... end of the day, each individual got the food, but to a certain extent only.

(2) mynahs were opportunistic birds. they also flock together when there was food. and although they fight for food amongst themselves, they generally left the pigeons to fight amongst themselves first. and they will snatch whatever flew out of the pigeon orgy... and they ate the food there. amongst themselves, they were generally less confrontational against their own kind compared to the pigeons. end of the day, they too got their food, but also to a certain extent.

(3) the two crows, on the other hand, did not fight amongst themselves especially in the presence of other species of birds around. they left each other alone. like the mynahs, they too were opportunistic birds. they would stand at the fringe and would grab any bits that flew out of the pigeon orgy. but they did not just go for any bits, they went for the big ones. but unlike the mynahs and pigeons that were somewhat social critters and tend to flock together, the crows were highly individualistic. and once they got the food, they grabbed it and flew off to enjoy the food themselves. end result, they were the best winners when it came to the game of fighting for food.

(4) the sparrows were the poorest and weakest when it came to fighting for food. i supposed it was becos of their size. they stood at the fringe and ate the leftovers (if any) after all the orgies... poor thing. otherwise, they very much left the other birds to fight and grab.

(5) common to pigeons and mynahs, if the piece of food was too big to swallow at a go, they'd hold it with their beak and swing their neck to break the food on the floor into smaller pieces before eating them. but in the process, they would lose a large portion to other birds around. for both crows, on the other hand, once they grabbed a large chunk of food, they fly off and ate at their own pace. and they did not break the food the way pigeons or mynahs did. instead, they used their legs and pressed the food onto the floor and pecked it into bite size pieces.

very interesting morning. it certainly allow me to see the little behaviours of our little friends. and certainly, the use of the term "bird brain" to describe stupid people certainly do not do justice to the birds. i actually thought they were very smart!

:-)

picture from http://nerdbirder.com/wordpress/2008/10/20/common-mynas-a-bird-a-day/common_myna_i_img_2393/