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I had a pet magpie as a child and in the short time we had it it was clear it was such an intelligent creature. Its nest had fallen from a tree in a storm - we

by ljf 9y ago

I had a pet magpie as a child and in the short time we had it it was clear it was such an intelligent creature. Its nest had fallen from a tree in a storm - we found it a day or so later in a not great state. But within a day of feeding it was hand tame and happily came to live in the house. By the end of the summer though it learnt the skills it needed and flew off. While it lived with us it quickly learnt the places we were happy for it to be in the house, where its 'bed' was and when we would feed it. It continually picked up small toys to play with and would delight in dropping things off the table for us to fetch and return for it. In some ways I was so sad when it left, and as a child regretted not clipping its wings - but I'm pleased we didn't and was hopeful it went off to lead a normal magpie life ;)

kawsper 9y ago
I have seen a jackdaw play a combination of hide and seek and tag with a 3 year old child. The child was chasing it, and the jackdaw used hedges and toys to hide behind, and whenever the tiny human came close, the jackdaw would run to the next thing and hide. When the child got bored, the jackdaw would run back to the child to get it to chase again. It was clear that they were both enjoying the game, and the parents didn't even realise that this had happened because they were meters away fumbling with a grill. When I was a child we also nurtured a jackdaw back to health, his name was Klaus and he learned to talk, he understood the concept of "Hello" and would use it correctly when you entered the house, and if he wanted you to leave him alone or we got stuck in a "Hello" greeting-loop, he would say "Go away".
Retric 9y ago
That's really interesting. As a kid I once rescued a humming bird that got tangled in a spiders web. I walked around with it for a few minutes and carefully cleaned the web off. Then suddenly after realizing it was ok. The bird was all too happy to fly off. It must have been fun to have a bird stick around like that.
- ljf 9y ago
  It really was - they were properly part of the family for a few months - and it used to go out and play in the garden and come back in the house when it was ready to rest or hungry - at first we locked it in a cage at night but soon we didn't, and it was very happy. But for ages it couldn't feed itself and relied on me dropping cat food into its open beak with tweezers - I'm pretty sure it did this longer than it would in the wild. Then one day when it was playing in the garden it learnt how to catch worms and insects, and then the next day it started drinking from puddles and then the next day it just flew away. It might have returned, but to be honest even then it would have been hard to recognise amongst other magpies - but it never tried to come in the house again, even though we left the doors open. For a few years after (and even now to be honest) I sometimes shout 'Marilyn' when I see magpies - hoping it will recognise me ;) (we chose 'Marilyn' as I'd recently read it was historically a mans name, so I thought it was good to choose something gender neutral)
conductr 9y ago
I have a similar story of taking in an orphaned baby deer as a kid. It was like one of our pet dogs. Our pet dogs even kind of adopted the deer as part of their pack. I think we only had it for ~6 months although it felt like a long time. Thanks for sparking that memory, I hadn't thought of that in ages.

by ljf 9y ago

kawsper 9y ago

I have seen a jackdaw play a combination of hide and seek and tag with a 3 year old child. The child was chasing it, and the jackdaw used hedges and toys to hide behind, and whenever the tiny human came close, the jackdaw would run to the next thing and hide. When the child got bored, the jackdaw would run back to the child to get it to chase again. It was clear that they were both enjoying the game, and the parents didn't even realise that this had happened because they were meters away fumbling with a grill. When I was a child we also nurtured a jackdaw back to health, his name was Klaus and he learned to talk, he understood the concept of "Hello" and would use it correctly when you entered the house, and if he wanted you to leave him alone or we got stuck in a "Hello" greeting-loop, he would say "Go away".

Retric 9y ago

That's really interesting. As a kid I once rescued a humming bird that got tangled in a spiders web. I walked around with it for a few minutes and carefully cleaned the web off. Then suddenly after realizing it was ok. The bird was all too happy to fly off. It must have been fun to have a bird stick around like that.

ljf 9y ago
It really was - they were properly part of the family for a few months - and it used to go out and play in the garden and come back in the house when it was ready to rest or hungry - at first we locked it in a cage at night but soon we didn't, and it was very happy. But for ages it couldn't feed itself and relied on me dropping cat food into its open beak with tweezers - I'm pretty sure it did this longer than it would in the wild. Then one day when it was playing in the garden it learnt how to catch worms and insects, and then the next day it started drinking from puddles and then the next day it just flew away. It might have returned, but to be honest even then it would have been hard to recognise amongst other magpies - but it never tried to come in the house again, even though we left the doors open. For a few years after (and even now to be honest) I sometimes shout 'Marilyn' when I see magpies - hoping it will recognise me ;) (we chose 'Marilyn' as I'd recently read it was historically a mans name, so I thought it was good to choose something gender neutral)

conductr 9y ago

I have a similar story of taking in an orphaned baby deer as a kid. It was like one of our pet dogs. Our pet dogs even kind of adopted the deer as part of their pack. I think we only had it for ~6 months although it felt like a long time. Thanks for sparking that memory, I hadn't thought of that in ages.