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I let a baby bird nest in my hair for 84 days
- dessant 5y agoAnd you did not share a picture of your bird. Here is one: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fgiMlnbDN6I/hqdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fgiMlnbDN6I/hqdefault.jpg
- petemir 5y agoI also found that fact odd. She's a photographer, I expected more visual content added to the text :(. It was quite enjoyable anyway.
- kbos87 5y agoIt’s very difficult to take a photo of the top of your head :)
- Fiahil 5y agoThanks ! The bird's size matters a lot: It would be much more difficult to let this happen with these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_black-backed_gull https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_black-backed_gull
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- denton-scratch 5y agoYou lookin' at my bird? https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/animals-bird-tick_bird-you_looking_at_my_bird-brawls-jealousy-akl0012_low.jpg https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/animals-bir... For those unfamiliar, that phrase is fighting talk that might be uttered by a very insecure male, out with his girlfriend. Incidentally, the cartoonstock image has a Copyright watermark on it. I believe that image is copyright Punch magazine, around 1968. If cartoonstock purchased the copyright, then I assert that it's fair use to post a link here.
- grenoire 5y agoArticle hotlinks a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgiMlnbDN6I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgiMlnbDN6I
- Flankk 5y ago
- drcongo 5y agoAbsolute Peak Guardian.
- canbus 5y agoAnd in other Guardian news: I bought a 2-bed flat in London (with the help of my rich parents) for ONLY £1.5million. The housing market in the UK isn't so bad after all!
- Mordisquitos 5y agoTo be fair, the Guardian would be very unlikely to downplay the cost of housing. I think a more likely story would be “The only way I could afford a flat without a mortgage in my early 20s was to move out of London. This is what I have learnt from this traumatic experience:”
- canbus 5y ago"people are saying hello to me and I don't like it"
- pacaro 5y agoThis must be a generational thing. For me, Peak Guardian occurred in 1994 when Richard Gott was outed as a Russian agent of influence. At the time he was their Literary Editor, previously he had been their Features Editor. He had been taking money from the KGB for 30 years by that point.
- drcongo 5y agoI think we're the same generation, but I'd consider that incident Peak Grauniad™ - it was a very different newspaper back in those days. The first half of the Rusbridger era, which followed soon after, was probably the last time it had any worth as a source of news. The last ten years or so though it's just painfully middle-class angst in newspaper form.
- svisser 5y agoIronically, her husband's name is Robin.
- canbus 5y agoPlot twist, her name is Batman!
- postsantum 5y agoMs. Veronica Crabtree, the prequel
- rvieira 5y agoI was thinking Radagast.
- rob0t 5y ago
- dijit 5y agoBeautiful read. It’s interesting how helping others can be so fulfilling, almost like the default human condition is as caretakers. I can’t say I would have done the same in her shoes, but it must have been very life affirming to essentially save a life and have its life married to yours.
- cf100clunk 5y agoThe Jains were on to something over 11 centuries ago: https://wikiless.org/wiki/Ahimsa_in_Jainism https://wikiless.org/wiki/Ahimsa_in_Jainism I am not a Jain, but I hold a deep respect for their duty of Ahimsa as being at the core of sensible living.
- screye 5y agoIsn't jainism about 2500 years old ?
- cf100clunk 5y agoHaving just looked up Jainism this time on Wikipedia I see that Jains claim that some of their greatest teachers were active far earlier than the time frames we've mentioned, even beyond any conventional count of years, but I'm not qualified to comment on their cosmology. I admire the duty of Ahimsa, so I mentioned it in the context of the parent post.
- peer2pay 5y agoWhile the story itself certainly is cute, this article somehow reinforces all prejudices I hold against the London bourgeoisie.
- rootlocus 5y agoLike how they find the cleaning of a bird litter exhausting when other people deal with both pets and babies at the same time?
- cfcosta 5y agoYou guys really need to step out when you start to get too cynical. It's a cute story about something that is out of the ordinary and left a emotional mark in someone, enough that they wanted to write about it. No need to be so judgemental.
- pvaldes 5y agoClickbait title. I had a young pet finch Lonchura that, sometimes, not all the time, landed on my shoulders and head to rest for a while.
- rwmj 5y agoThe story reminds me a bit of the scientist who raised turkey hatchlings as a "mother turkey" and learned their calls and behaviour. Really fascinating documentary if you can find it: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2496522/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2496522/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0133r58 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0133r58 Edit: It has its own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Life_as_a_Turkey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Life_as_a_Turkey
- denton-scratch 5y agoSee "King Solomon's Ring", by Konrad Lorentz. He describes shuffling around his garden in a squatting posture, followed by a column of imprinted greylag goslings. They only recognised him as their mum when he was under a meter tall, hence the squatting. I'm not sure that an 84-day-old bird still counts as a "baby bird"; don't most hatchlings fledge within 30 days or so?
- bayesian_horse 5y agoWhen she took him in, it had closed eyes, so that still qualifies as "baby bird", and it "fledged" relatively soon thereafter, though it kept a social bond with the woman, even past adulthood, which would have been at least a few weeks later.
- btilly 5y agoIn Last Chance to See (https://www.amazon.com/Last-Chance-See-Douglas-Adams/dp/0434009245/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0 https://www.amazon.com/Last-Chance-See-Douglas-Adams/dp/0434...) there is a story of a baby bird that couldn't imprint on the person who raised him, but did imprint on the yellow glove he was fed with. As an adult, the bird did not recognize his own species, but did recognize the glove and was willing to mate with it. Since the species in question was severely endangered, this was seen as useful as a way to try to keep the species alive.
- moron4hire 5y agoMaybe the bird had a latex fetish
- mschuster91 5y ago> When I returned, in January, I’d watch out for him when the finches flew past. Every now and then, one would hang back, on a branch, and stare at me. I still cry when I think of him. Now who's cutting onions here... having freshly raised two kittens to adulthood, I can say it's a highly rewarding experience to assist new life in growth.
- kelvin0 5y agoFood cubes, now this? HN ... you've lost your ways.
- callamdelaney 5y agoIf you stick around long enough, you'll be able to guess almost perfectly in which paper an article appears based on its headline alone.
- wwilim 5y agoThis problem just begs for a machine learning solution
- gwbas1c 5y agoI wish there were pictures!
- js2 5y agoThere'a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgiMlnbDN6I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgiMlnbDN6I
- mhb 5y agoReminds me of the great Radiolab botfly story: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/segments/91678-glad-somebody-likes-bugs https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/segments/91678...
- ape4 5y agoOn seeing the headline I wondered about the poop issue. But now see the bird wasn't always in her hair.
- maxbaines 5y agoAlso the vast majority of birds do not live or sleep in the nests they make, the nests are for chicks. https://slate.com/technology/2014/01/where-do-birds-sleep-roosting-in-nests-water-flocks-cavities.html https://slate.com/technology/2014/01/where-do-birds-sleep-ro...
- slibhb 5y agoI suspect the border between cute and sickening is an important pychological attribute that explains vast variations in human behavior.
- wanderr 5y agoPlease don't do this. Habituating wildlife to humans is not doing them any favors, it usually leads to their early demise. First make sure they are truly abandoned, most of the time mom is nearby. Second, if mom is truly not around, take the animal to a credentialed wildlife rehabber as soon as you can.
- merrywhether 5y agoI’m often curious about situations like this, as I had similar thoughts while reading. Assuming the bird was truly abandoned, is it better to imperfectly raise them yourself or to leave them to die? Not everyone is going to want or be able to track down a wildlife rehab expert.
- wanderr 5y agoTracking down a rehabber is far less effort than raising a wild animal. Most of the time there is not much difference in outcome between leaving it to die vs taking it in and raising it yourself, except the suffering is prolonged. Find a wildlife rehabber or find someone who will. I know that is not nearly as fun as raising a wild animal, I always dreamed of having a pet raccoon as a child, but it's the responsible thing to do.
- Cd00d 5y agoThat is the most click-bait headline I have ever read that actually delivers content both relevant to the headline and interesting!
- at_a_remove 5y agoAs a child, my cat found a baby flying squirrel in the grass. The vet speculated that, due to its very small size, it had been kicked from the nest. The cat was very upset about the whole thing and alerted us to the situation (part Siamese, she had a particular cry which meant "There is a Problem and you must come handle the Problem!"), which ended with us raising him. I was definitely the preferred spot for the flying squirrel: hiding in my hair, my shirt or shirt pocket, and so on. If the cage was open and I was home, he was on me. I had to get used to him just landing on me out of nowhere because, well, flying squirrel.
- lisper 5y agoDid you name it Rocky? Please tell me you named it Rocky!
- nunobrito 5y ago
- dymk 5y ago
- dschuetz 5y agoEw.
- sliken 5y agoMy back yard had a colony? Community? Flock? Large group of Magpies. They would collectively complain when I was in the back yard. One day my dog had a slow wag which means they found something interesting. I found a baby bird, unharmed. I found a nest nearby and it had been windy recently. So I took a small cardboard box, duct taped it into the tree, and put the baby bird in it. I checked later and found the mom feeding the baby. Ever since then, there was no complaints when I entered the back yard, and in fact they would often land on my hammock and would balance impressively (keeping the head still while the body swung) and peer in at us. Clearly I had moved from the alarm list to the friend list, community wide. I'd often see a magpie on my fence or in a tree watching me quietly.
- valarauko 5y ago> colony? Community? Flock? Large group of Magpies charm/mischief of magpies
- seba_dos1 5y agoThe whole corvid family is incredibly social and intelligent. They can remember and recognize human faces, and quickly deduce what's important to you (your laundry, for example), so you really don't want to end up on their "enemy" list.
- jfengel 5y agocolony? Community? Flock? Large group of Magpies "Mischief", supposedly, among other terms. But such "terms of venery" are usually Victorian parlor games, not actually used in practice. Any of the words you used is fine.
- bigprovolone 5y agoAll I can think about is the episode of "family guy" where Peter has birds nest in his beard
- LadyCailin 5y agoI don’t normally come to Hacker News to have a good cry.
- gizmore 5y ago[OMNIA - "Earth Warrior" - sneak peek bootleg live recording](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfN_ZMmiLQw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfN_ZMmiLQw) - bird nest edition