Crows and Magpies Snatch Anti-Bird Spikes to Build Their Nests

July 10, 2024 9:24 PM

Crows and Magpies Snatch Anti-Bird Spikes to Build Their Nests. Birds in Europe are prying up the metal barbs, meant to repel them from roosting on buildings, and using the devices as nesting material.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (17 comments total)

corvids are punk.
posted by HearHere at 9:40 PM on July 10, 2024 [27 favorites]

\m/
posted by away for regrooving at 9:51 PM on July 10, 2024 [3 favorites]

First of all, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B? I feel maybe the humans might be a bit weird by now with their royals and their biological philosophical transactions and their B-team royal societies. Second of all, fuck yeah, corvids, lemme teach you how to use these printing presses next. I cannot wait until y'all take over, especially as my sibling has been making lots of friends already? Please colonize us better?
posted by lauranesson at 9:53 PM on July 10, 2024 [3 favorites]

It's not surprising to me that corvids are using these strips to build nests - they seem ideally suited for making that type of structure. Cockatoos, on the other hand, have also been spotted removing the strips but, in true Cockatoo fashion, do it just to say 'fuck you' to humans.
posted by dg at 10:30 PM on July 10, 2024 [13 favorites]

Fuck 'em up, Corvus!
posted by rhizome at 10:31 PM on July 10, 2024 [4 favorites]

The magpies where I grew up loved to use brick ties for their nests.
posted by krisjohn at 11:38 PM on July 10, 2024

We. Are. Not. So. Smart. Alhamdulillah.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 12:28 AM on July 11, 2024

We put up spikes behind our chimney to deter the seagulls that come back each year. We happened to be in the garden when they arrived back again. They hopped along the apex of the roof till they were at the top of the slope above the chimney, then he basically shoved her off the edge so she slid down on to the spikes. He hopped down and mounted her, on the spikes. Then over the following week they piled green material on and around the spikes so now they have a fixed and well founded platform on which to nest each year. Which they do come back to. Every year.
posted by biffa at 12:37 AM on July 11, 2024 [10 favorites]

I love seeing little birds just straight up nesting among anti bird spikes, like sparrow nests in anti pigeon spikes. Leave it to corvids to take it one step further.
posted by carrioncomfort at 6:41 AM on July 11, 2024 [1 favorite]

I never saw what bird did it, but I have seen nests with Honey Locust thorns integrated into them. So, probably not a new behavior and more of an adaptation of an old one.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 7:31 AM on July 11, 2024

Hashtag Become Ungovernable
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 8:44 AM on July 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

Crow tech slaps.
posted by Piso Mojado at 10:11 AM on July 11, 2024 [2 favorites]

"I may not be able to dismantle houses with the masters tools but I sure AF can build my own, with the detritus of those tools. Watch!"
posted by symbioid at 11:20 AM on July 11, 2024 [3 favorites]

A building in downtown Rochester has these. The crows here have been tearing them off and dropping them on the ground, effectively making them anti-pedestrian spikes. Seems fair to me.
posted by tommasz at 12:47 PM on July 11, 2024 [3 favorites]

Be Warned! The Nature Of Your Oppression Is The Aesthetic Of Our Aerie
posted by eustatic at 4:26 PM on July 11, 2024 [6 favorites]

I want them to use the spikes as rebar in more sophisticated construction.
posted by rhizome at 10:02 PM on July 12, 2024 [1 favorite]

When you start to see Crows pouring concrete around stolen anti-bird spikes, I think it's fair to say we've lost.
posted by dg at 9:20 PM on July 14, 2024 [2 favorites]