4 ms·
I found this to be frustratingly light on detail. The most obvious question, the question hanging over basically every sentence: don't they, uh, hurt? How do yo
by glenstein 3y ago
I found this to be frustratingly light on detail. The most obvious question, the question hanging over basically every sentence: don't they, uh, hurt? How do you incorporate spikes into a nest without living a life of constantly being pricked?
It does mention that Antwerp magpies have a special use where spikes are outward pointing, effectively helping to create a bunker keeping predators away. It also says something frustratingly vague about spikes being bent "inward" and vaguely referencing structural support, which evokes an image of the pokey from Matilda.
But, this article creates the feeling that you can only get from the internet, a feeling like you're in a room with a thousand people but also with nobody. Because the obvious question, well, if you pressed your hand down on such a nest, would it be spiky? If so, is the life of a bird relying on these for a nest a torturous life of constantly choosing its steps carefully in a nest that's a blend of spikes and ordinary debris? Is there some creative design that they have resorted to that mitigates this? Are they just light enough that they can do some bird equivalent of the human laying on a bed of spikes trick? Maybe the statistical average of all the different angles of the spikes, when arranged into a meshy nest, is such that the "bed" has an average consistency that's bearable to the birds?
It's like all of the normal questions I would want to ask, but the only specific comments in the article are about things that appear to be unusual special cases.
- davidgerard 3y agothe paper: https://www.hetnatuurhistorisch.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/documents-nmr/Publicaties/Deinsea/Deinsea_21/Deinsea_21_17_25_2023_Hiemstra_et_al.pdf https://www.hetnatuurhistorisch.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/doc...
- __MatrixMan__ 3y agoThe relevant part is in the discussion section towards the end. These nests aren't exclusively made of spikes. Often it's just the roofs, which serve to defend against attack by other birds but which don't have support the nest builder.
- sitkack 3y agoThat is amazing. They are using them for their intended purpose, to keep birds away! And those structures look post-modern. Hats off to you birds!
- Applejinx 3y agoGotta hand it to corvids. They're not doing it by accident, they know exactly what they're doing. I don't know what's up with the crows that are pointing the spikes inward. Do we have self-loathing millenial crows out there? Is it an art statement or some kind of metaphor for crow life, to attract gothy crow girls?
- Retric 3y ago> you can only get from the internet It’s a NYT article, how exactly is reading it online different from reading it in a newspaper?
- StrictDabbler 3y agoBird spikes are dull. The goal is not to hurt birds. They just create a surface that is less practical to land or rest on. They do this by being vertical, parallel, and too close together for a bird to get a good sideways grip on any one spike. They don't prick the birds. This means they're effectively a forest of highly uniform metal twigs. Ordinary nest building with removed spikes would create a surface as comfortable as any other nest. It's not like twigs aren't pokey.
- oneeyedpigeon 3y agoThat doesn't mean they can't be cruel, of course. I've seen a bird die on these spikes.
- StrictDabbler 3y agoAbsolutely. "Dull" is relative. They're cut-off wire. It hasn't been sharpened but it hasn't been dulled. A bird flying in for a landing can certainly impale itself if it doesn't realize the spikes are there. All about speed and momentum. They just not particularly sharp from the perspective of a feather-covered animal moving gently through a nest so as to not damage the eggs. They aren't needles.
- pessimizer 3y agoBirds only weigh a few ounces. They're not compressing their nests so hard that fairly dull spikes would cut into them.
- ryandrake 3y agoAnother fundamental question not addressed: > Rows of these sharp metal pins have become a common feature of the urban environment, installed on rooftops and ledges to discourage birds from perching or nesting on buildings. Who installs these things and why? Maybe I'm not urban enough, but I don't understand why you'd even install these things. What's wrong with birds perching on a building?
- yourusername 3y agoThey also defecate on your building. Especially with doves this can turn your building nasty looking quickly and balconies unuseable.
- Modified3019 3y agoI’m going to have to install some screen mesh around the tops of the pillars around my home entryway, because birds keep perching and trying to build nests there. Just yesterday had to remove a house finch nest that appeared the other day. As much as I like them, I’m not letting them do that there. The problem is when birds hang around someplace, they quickly cover the ledges, walls and ground with shit. That and I don’t want baby birds screaming at 4am a few meters from where I sleep.
- voz_ 3y agoTrash approach, let the birds be, must you control everything?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- astrodust 3y agoPigeons, mostly. They poop on everything and that accumulated poop can be a real health hazard. https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/pigeon.page https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/pigeon.pag... If you think birds don't poop a lot remember there are entire islands made of bird poop. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/nauru https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/nauru