Friendly grackle

[vaneramos]

I was about to post this as a comment to laura_borealis, but thought of several other friends who might find this interesting, so I'll post it here. I got off the phone a little while ago with my Mom, who told me about a tame grackle in their neighbourhood. She went to have tea with a neighbour, and the bird came right up to them and took cracker crumbs and other food from their hands. The neighbour said it has been around all spring, but she was nervous about touching it. Mom commented to me that the West Nile Virus has made people afraid of birds in general.

Mom isn't afraid of animals at all; not snakes, spiders, or anything else. If the grackle had come to her yard, she said, she would have it in her lap in no time. That's one that always made me proud of my Mom. The neighbourhood kids couldn't scare her with frogs or worms, not that anyone would have tried.

Comments

[laura-borealis.livejournal.com]

That is so cool!

I have held wild birds (swifts), but only because they flew into my house and got trapped in the curtains.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I raised a cedar waxwing when I was 16 and it lived as a pet for 14 years. He was finger trained—would hop on your finger if you offered it to him—but got really mad if you tried to touch or hold him otherwise.

I did some bird banding when I was in university so I got to hold a lot of different birds, which was really cool.

[eloquentwthrage.livejournal.com]

That reminded me of a cute story I read in Reader's Digest not too long ago. (One of those true blurbs after the end of an article.) A little girl found a frog and took it to her mother, who put it into a jar for her to observe for the day. A little later, she came across a small snake, and the mother got another jar. The little girl looked at and played with the critters all day long.

At the end of the day, the mother told the little girl she had to let them go, because they need to be free to survive. The little girl took the frog in one hand and the snake in the other, and went to the backyard to release them as the mother watched from the porch. Suddenly the little girl dropped the animals, waved her hands wildly around her head and ran back to the house. "Did you see that?" she said to her mother. "That moth almost got me!"

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Heh... I thought the end of the story was going to be that the snake ate the frog.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Whenever I take my daughters to the butterfly conservatory, I'm surprised at how many people are afraid of butterflies!

[eloquentwthrage.livejournal.com]

Ramon is deathly afraid of all insects and spiders. He doesn't like lady bugs or butterflies or fireflies. He's weird.

He's not crazy about things like crabs and such, but he sure eats them well enough.

[currawong.livejournal.com]

A grackle!...a grackle?....please, dear Van, enlighten me.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Hehe, that's a strange name, isn't it. A grackle is a blackbird with a relatively long tail, long beak, yellow eyes and nicely iridescent plumage. They're common in city gardens here, but few of our birds are bold enough to take food from the hand. This one must have had some previous experience with humans, possibly been raised by someone.

[currawong.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh! I see.....grackle....grackle...I like it.

[laura-borealis.livejournal.com]

I played some of the bird songs on that page, and one of my cats got really excited. :)

[ghostsandrobots.livejournal.com]

Hooray, a grackle! I wonder if the one my mom rescued will enjoy human company when it's grown. Never seen a non-captive bird that friendly. Some of the pigeons might eat from my hand or perch on me, but I hear they carry parasites.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Hmm, most birds have parasites (lice and so on), but I don't know whether or not the kinds on pigeons are as virulent as the kind of stuff a household cat might carry around. Just wash your hands after holding any pets, husbands or other animals.

[ghostsandrobots.livejournal.com]

Well, that sort of puts an old squeamishness to rest then. I was always told not to get too close for that reason, though I love feeding and watching them.

Erik will be happy to hear the coast is clear, too!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Hi Zig, I did a little web research and came up with a few pages like this:

http://www.sorrellpainting.com/pigeon_proofing.htm

There are similar diseases associated with droppings of practically any animal. As I mentioned before, cats are particularly bad. That's why pregnant women are advised not to handle them or change kitty litter.

The problem with pigeons is they congregate in urban spaces and leave lots of droppings around buildings and parks. It would be a bad idea to let children play anywhere the birds have left messes.

I don't see much danger in touching a bird. Although they probably carry lice, mites and fleas, most of those species are host-specific. That means pigeons have their own species of these parasites, which could not survive on people.

North Americans are typically paranoid about dirt and disease. The reason I mention cats is to put things in perspective. We justify the risk and and inconvenience when it suits us (I know someone who is allergic to cats but keeps three of them!), and pin our fears on things unfamiliar.

Our penchant for cleanliness may actually be to blame for some allergies and asthma. I don't know if you have already read about this, but research has shown that children who grow up on farms or attend daycare are less likely to develop allergies than other children. It appears that early exposure to small amounts of fecal material probably "immunizes" children against developing adult allergies.

Anyway, farm kids are exposed to animal parasites every day. Always wash your hands! :-)

[ghostsandrobots.livejournal.com]

Ha, I did the same thing. :) I didn't find the page on that link, but what it says is very similar to one I saw -- enough similarities to make me think they took their info from the same source. This was another pigeon-proofing company, in fact.

Interesting. You have very good points here that I'd never seen in this light, even though I was aware of the "immunizing" bit. You're right though; we do apply information to areas where it suits us sometimes, without letting it challenge our fear of the unfamiliar.

We had a cat for awhile, and I always felt pretty much at ease about having sent Jude to daycare from a young age. I'll try not to let a few host-specific critters bother me anymore. ;)