I have a yard full of bird-feeders (set up by my wife, not me), every morning is a cacophony of bird song, and I can look out my window and see flocks of birds hopping and flying all over. If I set foot outside my door and look in their direction…forget about it. Instant panic. Birds go winging off in all directions, and the yard is abruptly vacant. I was quick enough to get this one photo of a stupid bird before it too decided I was a nightmarish, terrifying figure.
Spiders don’t do that. Spiders like me. Birds…bleh.
Caine used to cover herself in a tarp and sit very, very still.
For hours at a time.
You’ve just got the wrong type of bird, you need hawks and vultures.
One day I went out and was walking to my car. On the other side of the car was an enormous vulture.
It was just resting in the yard. As I approached the car, it turned its head but otherwise showed no
inclination to move on.
Come to think of it, now I only see about 10 percent o the wildlife I used to see.
Sad.
#1: Spiders don’t expect me to suffer. They’ll pose for their picture.
#2: Did the vulture look at you with anticipation? Have you considered that maybe there was a reason it was waiting and watching you?
If you then sit quietly in a chair without moving very much, the feeder birds will start to come back. Do it regularly and they will soon decide that you’re not a threat, even if your initial appearance still startles them a bit. The bolder ones might eventually land on you, especially if you hold out your hand with some birdseed in it.
As the one vulture said to the other one: ‘patience, my ass, I’m gonna go kill somethin’
Spiders probably see you with all those eyes, know you feed and care for them and don’t think you are a threat But, I’m sure you look like a big, hulking, bearded threat to the timid birds.
bwogilvie is spot on. Just be part of the environment, not a loomer. And be patient.
They may be bird-brained, but they are also adaptable and remember people.
I myself do a bit of a St Francis with the local birdies, did back in Birdwood here.
More butcher birds, fewer maggies.
Perhaps you need some California birds. A few of the smaller ones will flit off 10 feet or so, but even the tit mice and house finches will sit on a branch or the ground nearby. The scrub jays and towhees don’t get that far away. The hummingbirds will practically get in your face. We sometimes have coveys of quail (they move around from yard to yard a lot) and while the little one’s will disappear into the shrubs when we go outside, the adults will sometimes stay visible with one sitting on a fence calling away.
Like the Beach Boys sang, “Wish they all could be California birds.”
I saw the headline and the picture and thought this was going to be about aggressive nesting birds that keep swooping at you.
You just have to be patient PZ. And you can try bribing.
I’ve taught the local scrub jays that when they hear me make this clicking sound a peanut (roasted, unsalted, in shell) will be tossed. So now I click and they all jump to where they can see me so they’ll know where it goes when I toss it.
And then sometimes they’ll talk to you. I had one female that came by for several years. I would just toss them down on the ground next to me. If she wasn’t already there waiting she would flutter down.
Off to my right is a little sidewalk running off to my right. And a few feet in is a hose crossing the sidewalk. And her habit was to pick up the peanut, hop over to the hose. Jump up on it, grab the hose and the peanut with one foot and peck at it to break off a piece.
So there was this line of peanut shells running down both sides of the hose. From one side of the sidewalk to the other.
One day I mowed the grass. Prepping meant grabbing that hose and pulling it back over the sidewalk.
Later sat down and she fluttered down next to me. Tossed her a peanut. She takes about 2 hops till she’s a foot away from where the hose was. Stops. Slowly scans the line of peanuts from left to right. Pauses. Looks over her right shoulder at me and I swear to god I saw a word balloon over her head that said “What the fuck Dude?”.
I laughed so hard.
A friend of mine wrote a book “How to Make Friends With Wild Birds.” You can read some excerpts here: https://birdfriender.net You’ll probably find it a bit on the woo side, and it’s written for 12 and up, but it’s a pleasant read with a novel approach for this sort of thing. And I have no doubt she’d be as delighted to talk about spiders with you as birds. :)
(And yes, the John Paulus mentioned in the credits and her bio is the sometimes guitarist for the current iteration of Canned Heat. I’d lost track of her over the years, and I still can’t wrap my head around that (last I’d heard she was teaching in South America). I can’t even imagine how the two would ever have crossed paths at all, let alone get married.)
According to the interesting video linked by birgerjohansson in the pocket watch thread, birds recognize and heed warning calls from other species of birds. It could be one nervous bird scaring them all off. You need to befriend that bird.
If you sit still well away from the bird feeders they will eventually get used and allow you to be (somewhat) closer. Expect the process to take weeks.
Unlike spiders, birds can actually recognize specific humans. I sit on our back porch regularly, not too far from the feeder, and several of the birds recognize me and don’t worry as long as I don’t move much. And perhaps even newcomer birds, noticing the nonchalance of our regular visitors, figure they must know something and tentatively approach as well.