Bird brains

[ffutures]

The bird feeder outside my kitchen window is currently getting a lot of attention from blue tits - seem to be several smallish ones, I'm wondering if they hatched earlier this year though it seems a bit too early for them to be flying. Most of them have got the idea of sticking their beaks into the holes to pull out seeds, but there is at least one that's persistently trying to peck its way through the clear plastic. Not sure if that makes him an idiot or unusually intelligent, able to recognize food even when he can't smell or taste it.

Comments

[uk-sef.livejournal.com]

My baby blue-tits have been zipping around for quite a while now (possibly since some point in June). Although there's supposedly a concern over touching bird eggs because the parents will smell you on them and be scared away, apparently they really don't rely on smell but vision. Which probably means your baby blue-tit is a bit of an idiot rather than a misguided genius. Unless of course it has super-pecking-powers and succeeds ...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

OK, idiot it is. Seems plausible.