Mastodawn

This is so cool!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jmys2abx4co

(There's also a part 2, which is even better!)

I know that different sounds have meanings, like the aerial predator alert is a high pitched "tsee tsee" and the ground predator is the churring sound, and there are contact calls. But this researcher found that bird grammar is a lot more complex than we thought!

I had a tame great tit, I called him Tubbie. I think imitating animal calls is kind of an #autistic thing? I used to try to imtitate the "peep peep churrrr" noise, which according to this video may be the pitsupi jajaja call? Haha, was I saying, hey I'm the predator (that gives you mealworms)? I don't suppose they even recognised it as an attempt to speak their language. Anyway, he couldn't really tell me from anyone else wearing a hijab in my garden, or at least, he used to ambush my mum thinking she was me. But when he was within earshot and I'd call out, "Tubbie! Wormies!" he'd fly to our garden and look out for me holding the worm tub. If the shed door was open, he'd fly into it and hop about on the tub, because he couldn't open the lid.

I also had a semi-tame blackbird who would recognise my voice. I'd move the worms around the garden and when he came in, I'd click and point to where I'd put the worm dish that day and he'd fly straight to that part of the garden.

Both my tame blackbirds were killed by cats. One of them was tortured to death.

Keep your freaking cats indoors or get them a catio to keep wildlife safe! You don't have a right to kill wildlife via your cat nor force your PET on neighbours who don't want it. Stop being so selfish.

#Birds #BirdsAreCool #catowners #controlyourcat #wildlife

After 20 Years, This Scientist Proved Birds Can Talk and Use Grammar

YouTube

Show thread

Douglas Edwards

Mar 3

@SilverArrows Keeping #cats outside isn't great for the cats either. My wife and I are currently in the process of rescuing a feral mother #cat (Nyx) and her 3 young #kittens (boys Boudin and Greystoke, girl Eris) that came to our door begging for food and shelter. We're taking the last kitten (Eris) in to be fixed (and vaccinated, chipped, etc.) this morning. We've given away both boys to good homes; we're considering keeping Nyx and Eris ourselves. We believe that Nyx was born in the wild, but that her mother was OWNED but allowed to wander the neighborhood — unfixed. So we're cleaning up after whoever was responsible; such behavior is unfortunately common here in the #South of the #USA. We keep our cats, including the rescues, strictly inside (all the way inside and/or in a fully enclosed screened porch). But not everyone feels the need to do that. #OrcsWithPretensions #OWP

Show thread

Silver Arrows

@dedicto

I don't know if it's just a fediverse thing, but I'm seeing a lot more people those days agreeing that cats shouldn't be allowed to free roam. I've had this opinion about 20 years, and I was always get dogpiled and made to feel like I was unreasonable for wanting to protect wildlife from cats.

I've had to take down my bird feeder because my sister has three strays in the garden. She doesn't want to adopt them, but keeps feeding them, so they're permanently there, keep trying to get in the back door and I couldn't feed my garden birds over this freezing winter. I can't remember the last time I heard bird song. The only birds I see are the magpies occasionally, trying to get at the meat the others put out for the cats. I love how brash crows are, they taunt the cats sometimes.

Once there was a carrion crow on a fence, with a cat on each side of the fence looking up at it. The crow was just sitting calmly, looking at them, like "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough. No, that's what I thought."

Show thread

Douglas Edwards

Mar 3

@SilverArrows In the #USA anyway, just about anyone involved with the #CatFancy will tell you that #cats should be strictly indoor — for their own good AND that of wildlife. In this, cat fanciers are of the same mind as environmentalists. As individuals, cats are horribly vulnerable; as a species, they ask no quarter from anything. They're on the list of the world's 100 worst invasive species. It's also agreed that if you're feeding them, you should at least do TNR as well (Trap-Neuter-Release). (We chose to make Nyx and her kittens into pet cats instead, which so far seems to be working out quite well.)

Unfortunately, there are still plenty of the unenlightened who don't bother to think out the consequences.