HOW TO TAME WILD BIRDS.

Forest and Bird, Issue 29, 1 April 1933, Page 10

HOW TO TAME WILD BIRDS.

The following article by E. W. Hendy, author of “The Lure of Bird Watching,” describes how so-called wild English birds can be tamed. Our own birds, such as bell-birds, are all amenable to similar treatment, including sea birds, numbers of which may be seen following one lady bather into the sea at Paraparaumu. 1 his lady feeds the sea-birds every morning. “The best way to tame birds is to keep a bird table or tables. It is unnecessary, so far as the bodily welfare of the birds is concerned, to feed them except in cold weather. But if you supply food for them all the year round they become accustomed to human presence, and, as Lord Grey has pointed out, realise

. that in a certain area—that is, on and near the bird- . table—they are safe. “Tame robins have become proverbial. I have known many: but during the summer of 1930 they mysteriously deserted our board and our garden. It was the chaffinches that were tamest. Whenever the weather allowed we took our meals on a flagged space bounding the south side of' our house, and, .as we ate, the chaffinches walked round our feet, under the table, and devoured the morsels we gave them; occasionally they perched on the table. Pied

wagtails and greenfinches sometimes came with the chaffinches, hut they never ventured so near. “It was an interesting experience to look down from above upon a ‘wild’ bird at a distance of only a foot or two. From this vantage you can see every separate feather on the blue head and russet mantle of a cock chaffinch; you can watch him turning the hemp seed with his tongue as he holds it between his horny mandibles, and hear it crack. You may note, too, that his long middle toe is slightly turned inwards, to get a good grip. “Soon we began to recognise the differences in the individualities of our guests. The most trustful was a cock whose white wingbar was almost obscured by the greyish wing-coverts.

He was the father of a family and brought two of his infants with him. It was ridiculous to see these fluffy hunched-up bantlings swinging their heads and bodies from side to side as they squeaked for food, though at the same time they showed that they were perfectly capable to getting their own dinners by picking up crumbs almost at their father’s feet, as he fed them. Another cock chaffinch looked very worn with family cares, and was constantly collecting food and flying off with it. He was ■almost as tame as the first chaffinch, but the others were more wary. All were extremely quarrelsome; in fact, they seemed more nervous of each other’s presence than of ours. The tamest of the chaffinches were all cocks; hens came too, but they were far shyer. This was unexpected: I think the explanation is that while the hens were incubating the cocks had fed daily and hourly at our bird-tables, and had become inured to our proximity. “ I never succeeded in inducing any of these chaffinches to feed from my hand, though I have in times past had several robins who would do so. The chaffinches became suspicious as soon as I held my fingers near the level of the flags on which the crumbs were spread, though they took food only a few inches

distant from my finger-ends. 1 was surprised to find that the fledgling •chaffinches showed the same suspicion. Was this wariness a piece of inherited instinct, or did they learn discretion from their father’s example ? Such ■questions may seem trivial, but if we ■could interpret them correctly they might lead to the elucidation of some •of the most secret

mysteries of bird behaviour. The border line between instinct and intelligence in birds and animals is a very tenuous one it is •only by careful observation of individuals that we can ever hope to discriminate; even the smallest incident properly understood may prove to be a clue of infinite importance. “No doubt some fortunate human beings are endowed with •a certain magnetism which disarms the suspicions of wild birds.

Many of us can remember, in one of the London parks, the man on whose arms, head and shoulders the sparrows used to perch in numbers. I once knew' a lady wdio could put her hand beneath a sitting robin and feel the warm eggs, and another whom a brown owl allowed to take a similar liberty. These privileges are not vouchsafed to all. But anyone who can remain quiet—and does not keep a cat —can teach wild birds to trust them. And they will thus learn more of their individualities than from any cage-bound captive. A tamed bird in the bush is its natural self.”