You see pigeons and other birds go mad when a bunch of breadcrumbs are thrown on the ground, but seem to know not to go for small rocks, earth, and other non edible things even if they were to be thrown in the same way.
Maybe I’m just underestimating the intelligence of pigeons or their keen eyesight? But they seem to know almost instantly what they can and can’t eat.
In: Biology
Story time! (Also my most shameful moment.) Back in college there was a river that passed through campus. There were ducks along the river and they had a seemingly endless supply of food from students thrown at them. One time, I was for whatever reason (alcohol) inspired to toss an acorn off the ground their way. A duck immediately snapped it up and started to choke. It was horrible, awful, no good, and very bad. I got the hell out of there and have no idea if the bird lived or not. That said, I did look for a dead bird the next day and did not find anything, so I like to think the bird lived. This was thirty years ago now and I still feel guilty about it.
They learn. I currently have chicks and for the first few days to weeks it’s better to keep them on kitchen paper and make sure the only things small enough to swallow are food (and poop, you can’t keep them from it, anything that looks interesting gets pecked). They now still nibble on everything that looks interesting, but spit out all non-food (to maybe nibble it again another three times, just to make sure)
Some things are instinct. Small wiggling thing? FOOD! Even without being taught or shown by anyone. With everything else they’re more suspicious. It gets looked at, sniffed, pecked and if it tastes good, down it goes.
Nidicolous birds are different. They eat whatever the parents bring and stuff down their throats. Not much free exploration and experimentation going on there. They’re stuck in the nest.
The transition can be cute. Sparrow chicks eat invertebrates, insects, worms, spiders. But when they grow up they switch to plants. For a while you can see fat fledglings sitting in the backyard, in front of a tasty plant, with the parent ripping pieces off and shoving it in their face with what appears to be growing frustration with the little idiot.
Animals aren’t perfect. Hawks pick up sticks that they think are snakes. Pigeons peck at rocks that they think are seeds, granted stones help them grind seeds, I prefer to think that is a side effect of their imperfections.
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