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04 May 2006

Bizarre bunnybird behavior. What the hell are these birdbrains trying to do?[More:] For the last three days, these two birds have been pestering me at work. They always show up together; one of them, the more quiet one, has a dark, almost black body, with a lighter colored head. His (?) mate is slightly smaller, with kind of speckled color.

They have been appearing right outside both of the windows in my office. They land on the outside sill, and look in. Movement inside and even knocking on the window fail to scare them. They peck at the window, sometimes hard enough to push themselves backward. The smaller one that I'm guessing is female will, every 15-20 seconds, make this weird twittering noise while puffing up. The male will not make the noise, but will puff up in sympathy with the female. Occasionally, they'll get into a tiff and peck at each other. They'll sit out there for up to a half hour at a time, then fly off for parts unknown, only to reappear an hour or two later and repeat the performance.

What the hell???

And just for clarity's sake, the "bunny" part of the post title was supposed to be struck out. I didn't realize the strike tag would be stripped off. Sorry!
posted by deadcowdan 04 May | 07:29
maybe put some birdseed out on the lawn a little bit AWAY from the window? make 'em happy! they'll quit peckin' at each other and at your window.

be flattered. personally, i love when the wildlife pays attention to me. wildlife is cool peeps.
;-)
posted by shane 04 May | 08:19
Do they look like this? This is a grackle. My experience with these guys is that they just do odd things.
posted by LunaticFringe 04 May | 08:49
A grackle is a blackbird, and blackbirds "walk like a man." They rarely hop. Most other birds hop, not walk. If it walks it is probably of the blackbird family, which includes many different blackbirds, not just grackles.

I love grackles, btw. Just the name "grackle" is too cool, from the Roman "grackulus" (sp?) meaning "to cough" and referring to the sound they often make. (I hope I got that part right.)

Here's a totally cool grackle that the totally cool interrobang drew for me.
posted by shane 04 May | 09:04
Weird. Take photos!

Do you think they see something in your office that they want to use to make a nest with? Or maybe they're seeing their reflections in the window and interacting with them?
posted by iconomy 04 May | 09:40
I'm guessing they're seeing their reflections in the window. I don't know anything about wild birds so it's just a guess but I know some parrots will bond with their mirrors as fiercely as they bond with another bird and will defend it with their life.
posted by LeeJay 04 May | 09:58
I would have taken photos if I had remembered to bring my camera with me this morning. I know very little about birds, but it would not surprise me if they were the above-mentioned grackles, since the noise the one is making could be described as coughing. They could very well be seeing their reflections and interacting with them. If I remember to bring the camera tomorrow (and they're still hanging around), I'll grab some pictures.
posted by deadcowdan 04 May | 11:11
Do you think they see something in your office that they want to use to make a nest with?

Or they might see something shiny they want to steal and horde... Or what LeeJay said.
posted by shane 04 May | 11:24
do they walk or hop, dan?
posted by shane 04 May | 11:25
It's kinda hard to tell. If I had to say, I'd say they hop. But I only see them sitting on the window sill, so they don't do much of either.
posted by deadcowdan 04 May | 11:36
Grackles make lots of funky noises -- some of them could be described as coughing. Grackles are kind of big, though, and the females are a dull (not speckled) brown. Also, grackles tend to be too gregarious to travel in pairs.

They sound sort of like starlings to me. (Though they usually don't travel in pairs either.)

[Fascinating starling tidbit and photo]
posted by mudpuppie 04 May | 12:15
Upon further thinking about it -- what about Brewer's Blackbird?

You'll often see them wandering around outdoor restaurants scrounging for crumbs. They ain't afraid of civilization.
posted by mudpuppie 04 May | 12:16
The Brewer's Blackbird looks close - imagine the male with lighter head plumage and you have what I was seeing.
posted by deadcowdan 04 May | 12:33
I didn't know about grackles until I moved to Houston. I think the greater-tailed grackles are especially cool (they have this big plume of a tail). The grackles I heard made sounds like electrical stuff shorting out.
posted by deborah 04 May | 17:47
Maybe we should spend our retirement? || We have a birthday today.

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