Nurturing birds as pets

[Robin Eckermann <>]

I'd be interested to hear chatline members' views on bird feeders, and
also on nurturing regular garden visitors as pets. Confession: I have
enjoyed having a tame magpie or two, cultivating their trust with the
occasional tidbit of food. Here's one of my current pets ...

 (clicking on the thumbnail should bring up a larger image if
anyone is interested)

My principles:

1. Don't feed them regularly, lest they become excessively dependent;
and
2. Don't feed them inappropriate foods (eg: bread)
3. When there's a group, spread the largesse around

My bird feeder is filled with a seed mix intermittently and has attracted
10 or so different species. Some (like some King Parrots which are not
regulars) have been surprisingly trusting and taken sunflower seeds from
the palm of my hand. Maybe others have hand fed them previously?

I'm working on a family of Australian Ravens at the moment - very
entertaining birds as they push the grandchildren's soccer ball around
the yard ... but also extremely wary. I count it as a success to have had
one of the parents take a tiny sliver of food from my hand recently.
However, given their reputation for intelligence, I expect they should
learn quite well.

I'd be interested in other people's thoughts.

Regards ... Robin Eckermann

PS: As a recent offender in posting an image > 100kB, I've amended my
ways with this posting and it should appear with a tiny thumbnail of a
picture, with a larger version reachable by clicking on the thumbnail.
Having sent this image first to myself, it arrived as a 10kB email -
small enough even for those still on dialup. However, the technique may
or may not work with all email systems. If it doesn't work, perhaps you
could let me know, including what system (windows, mac, linux) and
browser you're using.