Posted on 04/11/2019 8:03:21 AM PDT by csvset
MELAKA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Crows have become a menace here, driving residents to despair while leaving one local councillor trying to figure out why the birds are targeting women's undies.
Melaka Historic City (MBMB) councillor Tan Chin Gwan said he was perplexed by why crows were snatching undergarments placed on clotheslines, especially at the city's commercial hub of Kota Laksamana.
"These thieving birds are a menace as they have swooped down and snatched dozens of panties since June last year."
"I have received more than a hundred reports of crows terrorising condominiums and high-rise residential areas in Kota Laksamana in the last 10 months, and 20 per cent of the complaints have been on missing panties," he told The Star here on Thursday (April 11).
"I am still baffled by why these crows are snatching panties, and where they go to hide them," he said.
Mr Tan added that crows have been brazenly flying into hotel premises, eateries and schools to steal food, scaring people in the process.
He said the bird population has grown so much that the MBMB pest control unit has been forced to cull them.
"In February, 81 birds were shot within the Kota Laksamana area and the operation will be continued till the end of this month," he said.
Mr Tan said that with their beaks and sharp claws, crows are also frightening away tourists, while hoteliers have complained of these creatures stealing food served at open-air restaurants.
"There have also been reports of hungry crows injuring hotel staff, as well as damaging rubbish bins at housing estates," he said.
Mr Tan added that schools in Bandar Hilir have been forced to place safety nets to stave off the avian siege.
"It's now 'normal' to hear of crows attacking pupils at canteens in a bid to grab their food," he lamented.
When it comes to counting crows, Mr Tan said the crow population in Melaka is estimated to be in the thousands, and they are now scattered across different areas within the city.
Fortheloveofgawd, PLEASE do NOT hang granny draws out to dry. The trees don’t need to be filled with pollen covered parachute nests.
Suuure, blame it on the crows.
LOL, I love threads like this! In my later life, I have turned into an avid student of birds...I watch them constantly, observing their behavior with both people and other birds.
I love corvids (Crows, jays, etc) because, even if I am trying to avoid anthromorphizing them...I can’t. Corvids have much in common with humans, both bad and good.
Birds are smarter than people give them credit for. They aren’t just a conglomeration of behaviors bundled together under the rubric of “Innate Behavior”. They interact and learn. The number of Neurons in a brain are important for learning behavior and remembering things. Humans have a lot of them, when you look at number of neurons per gram of brain tissue, birds have 4 to 10 times as many as humans do per gram. Granted, birds and humans leverage them in different ways, but in the animal kingdom, birds are WAY up there above humans, primates, pigs, you name it.
Caching behavior is a good indicator of this. Birds cache seeds in various places. In one study, they found a single bird could store seeds in up to 5000 locations in a single season, and could remember where 75% of them were hidden!
I have always found crows interesting. I read a story a few years back about a deer hunter who went out hunting on his extensive property every year. He noticed that each year, when deer season opened and he walked out with his gear and gun, there were crows everywhere lined up on powerlines and trees, patiently waiting for him. Apparently, they like to feed on the gut pack removed when a deer is shot. At first, he thought “How the hell do they know today is the first day of deer season? I didn’t know crows could read calendars!” Then he thought perhaps they see him come out with his gear on with his gun, but no...they began to appear and line up days before he went hunting with the crowds getting bigger each day. Then, he figured it out.
They were watching him in his house through the windows. When he took out his gun and gear and began cleaning it, word in the Crow world must have gotten around...”He’s getting ready to go. He has his hunting gear and is cleaning his gun!”
And then, when he went hunting...the crows were silent. Instead of cawing and making noise that might startle or alert the deer, they just sat in the trees and watched, and after the deer was shot and gutted, they swooped down on the bloody guts to pick away!
Another story I read, crows found a tree with some kind of edible nut near a busy intersection with a stop light. The crows couldn’t get into the nuts themselves, and like seagulls dropping clams onto rocks, they found they could break them open by dropping them into the middle of the road.
The problem for the crows was three-fold: if they didn’t drop it from high enough, it wouldn’t crack open. And if they dropped it too high, it would break up and spill the contents all over the road, making it inefficient and dangerous to retrieve. And last, no matter how high they dropped it, it was a busy, dangerous intersection that would make retreival a nearly suicidal task.
The crows figured out, based on the weight of the nut and its condition, just how high to drop it from. They became expert, dropping just high enough to crack it open without spilling the edible contents.
And they figured out how to read the traffic light. When the light turned red, they would fly over the road, drop from just the right height, and have it land in front of the first stopped car with just a crack in it. Then, swooping in, they would grab the nut, stick their beak in the crack, and take the nut off the road to eat it. And they made sure to NOT be in the road when the light changed!
The other day I was in my backyard, and I saw a crow come in and land in a denuded tree three streets over, which is a good distance. I have some excellent motion-corrected binoculars, so when I looked at that bird all that distance off...it was unmistakably looking back at ME and fixedly observing me! (You can tell crows from ravens when they land somewhere, because ravens just...land. They land and don’t move. When crows land, they always fidget about for a few seconds before settling down)
Blue Jays are hilarious. But they can also be mean as hell, I saw one pecking a sparrow to death one day to the piteous cries of the sparrow, and when I could take it no more, I walked outside to put an end to it because the hideous cries had been going on for about 15 min, and once you know what it is, is hard to listen to. As I walked around the corner, the Blue Jay, gave a peck, watched me walk towards it and when I was about five feet away, it gave one, final, defiant peck to the poor sparrow before flying off. The sparrow was missing both eyes and had blood all over it, and I put it down with my heel.
Blue Jays are greedy. They try, but they can only fit one peanut with the shell on in their beak. With their beak full, they try, but cannot usually get a second peanut. They have to break open one, get the shelled peanuts into their throat pouch, and go back for the second peanut.
More hilariously, if you throw two peanuts in the shell out at the same time that are the same size, the Jay will pick one up, drop it, pick the other one up, drop it,and pick the first one up. I watched one do this five times in rapid succession, being unable to determine which one was “bigger”! It was greed in a comical way.
I have big bags of peanuts and a feeder outside my office. Each morning when I raise the blinds, there are 8-15 blue jays just sitting there waiting for me. I have a Quaker Oats can full of the peanuts, and when I bring it into view, the interest of all the jays is immediately focused! I throw the peanuts out, one by one, so I can count the number, and one by one according to their pecking order, one swoops in, picks it up, and flies off in a great hurry, apparently absconding with the tasty booty as if they had somehow stolen it and were worried I was going to repossess it!
I find Blue Jays to be hilariously goofy and entertaining!
Are any of them three-eyed?
Crows make tools. I’ve seen them chase coyotes away.
I began some casual bird watching about 15 months ago when our local photography group sponsored a trip up to the Snowgoose Festival of the Pacific Flyway in Chico, California in January 2018. I'd never known such festivals existed, so signed up. It was the most amazing event -- three full days of excursions to National Wildlife Refuges in the Sacramento River / Central Valley area. On our first refuge stop, we saw 45 different species of birds. I'd never seen so many species at one location in my entire life.
One of our guides was friends with the Refuge Manager and he got us into the back reaches of the preserves where the public is normally not allowed. Watching the "fly offs" at dawn and dusk is just amazing. Turns out the waterfowl are smart like the crows you mentioned with the hunter. The waterfowl to and from feeding areas before sunup or after sundown to avoid the hunters.
Here are the Snowgeese for which the festival is named at the Grey Lodge:
I went on a few other excursions after that (an Audubon outing; another Flyway festival at Mare Island, Vallejo, CA; and a raptor outing). In December at Christmas time, we took Coeur d'Alene Eagle Lake Cruise and saw about 400 bald eagles in flight, diving, eating, and just sitting around in trees, pilings and on beaches. That was wonderful!
I want to get to the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in Southern Idaho next.
They could probably be trained to steal panties.
I know! We had a black lab as kids, and the Blue Jays terrorized her by dive bombing her...we still talk of it today!
I find crows very interesting, because...they apparently find US very interesting.
I was walking into work some years back, and there was a solitary crow sitting on a parking lot lamp. As I approached it watched me closely, and I walked slower as it inclined its head until I disappeared directly under the light it was standing on.
With a deft little effortless hop into the air, it rotated its entire body 180 degrees so it was facing the other direction and could see me.
There was something so..minimalist about that little hop, just so it could keep its eyes on me.
I think in general, birds are curious about us. I smoke a pipe occasionally when I lay in my hammock, and the birds change their behavior. They fly back and forth all the time, but when I am smoking the pipe, they fly very low and buzz me, flying between the wooden structure and the hammock, and I can hear the beating of their wings! They land on the structure, and eyeball me between the grape vines I have growing on it, it is really interesting. Something about the pipe interests them, I think.
Very cool! In the Northeast, we don’t have as many eagles, but...I DID see on last weekend fly over my house, for the first time ever, so they are making a comeback for sure.
A real trip to see a bunch of birds flock like that, to hear the sound of the wings all beating the air at the same time is a rush!
Great stories!
Crows like fish.
Crows like fish.
Over the years commuting to work, I noticed a flock of vultures that covered a particular stretch of road. One day I spotted 10 of them perched atop the arms of a street light, a black V against the sky.
I tried leaving some shiny objects in a tray type feeder that the larger birds use, but the birds ignored them, lol
“Something about the pipe interests them, I think.”
Pipes used to interest women too.
LTPROMB!!!!!!
(Laughing the panties right off my butt!!!!!)
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