There used to be a gentleman who posted an occasional thread of his beautiful photography of birds. I’ll try looking back and figure out who it was.
I found Maurice Baker because I was looking for videos on learning to hand-feed wild birds. I’ve been feeding the birds outside my workplace for about 8 years; they all know me, and follow me around now when I walk out. I’ve been hesitant to condition them to hand-feeding, for fear that they will mistake someone else for me and perhaps be hurt - a lot of people really don’t like birds, and are afraid to have them flying around their heads.
But I’ve reconsidered. I don’t think that will be a problem with truly wild birds; it seems to sometimes be a problem with imprinted rescues who are later released.
After birds get used to you as a food source, you can begin putting the food on a glove, perhaps on a long stick, so that they don’t have to come near you, but begin to associate the glove with food; and after awhile, you can put the glove on your hand. But there are lots of other ways:
https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/how-to-get-birds-to-eat-out-of-your-hand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SCTtu2EUg0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC-7Vh-olmI
That Freeper was Swampsniper. RIP but occasionally some friend posts a thread in his honor, could probably search for a thread with Swampsniper in the title.
Swampsniper I think is who you are talking about.