Birds make nests out of anti-bird spikes

[editor]

Love this story

Birds have never shied away from turning human rubbish into nesting materials, but even experts in the field have raised an eyebrow at the latest handiwork to emerge from urban crows and magpies.

Nests recovered from trees in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium were found to be constructed almost entirely from strips of long metal spikes that are often attached to buildings to deter birds from setting up home on the structures

Crows and magpies using anti-bird spikes to build nests, researchers find

Dutch study identifies several examples of corvids’ ‘amazing’ ability to adapt to the urban environment

www.theguardian.com

 

[cupid_stunt]

It reminds me of this video...

 

[MickiQ]

My next door neighbour at No 1 has a patio at the bottom of the garden and got fed up with the birds shitting on her patio furniture when they perched on the fence so she glued some anti-bird spikes to the top of the fence to stop them. We've seen the birds balancing on the spikes as they shit away. Doesn't matter if the shit falls on our side just fertilising the plants but it doesn't half wind up No 1 if they are facing the other way.

 

[WouldBe]

It reminds me of this video...

Here's an idea, if you fasten them down then birds wouldn't be able to remove them.

 

[furluxor]

You fuck with corvids, corvids fuck right back with you

 

[StoneRoad]

Aye, editor I saw that earlier ... made me smile.

Birds will make use of what human's have discarded as rubbish for nesting materials.
Magpies and shiny things are quite well known ...

There have been a few cases when various of the monitored ospreys have given their official watchers kittens when they bring back plastic bags etc. to their nests.

Birds are not alone in the habit ... other wildlife sometimes do similar things at nest building time.
A few years ago I was helping clear some old outhouses on a nearby farm.
Moved a couple of sheets of crinkly tin that had been leaning against the wall only to find a load of little beady eyes watching me. A few seconds later and the little rodents literally exploded out of their nest and ran in all directions. What they left behind was a neat[ish] pile of shredded plastic bags - their "loo" was actually just outside the building, under some old roofing tiles, as we found the dry droppings some time later.
Farmer laughed like a drain, and said the barn owls / cats / terriers would soon reduce the numbers. I thought he would be more annoyed, but as he said, all the fresh feed is kept in rodent-proof "bins" that were regularly checked and the little pests do some good in clearing up stuff that's been dropped around the yard and the chickens have missed.