Twitch's Treasures

"What's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine."

       -Twitch

Yup, that pretty much sums up Twitch the common grackle's motto. In the 4 months that I've been fostering him I have found that if he has something and you try to even touch it, you will suffer the pointy, stabby beak of Twitch. And if you have something and he wants it, kiss it goodbye (and also suffer the pointy, stabby beak). 

Twitch resides in my office, and when I'm working on my computer or doing other desk work, I usually let him out to get some exercise. He spends a lot of time on top of my monitor singing at me, watching what I'm doing, and bouncing off of the top of my head. But Twitch and his big brain has learned something: the human has interesting and often tasty things at her desk. It started one day with the little green foamy frog you see in the photo above. For 3 years, that cute little frog has lived on the upper left corner of my monitor. Until one day when Twitch decided to remove it, take it back to his cage, immediately decapitate it, and then play with the carcass.

You see how at the end Twitch puts his beak in the air? That's how male grackles assert their dominance. It's common to see two grackles at a bird feeder, beaks in the air, seeming to see who can put their beak the highest in some sort of snobbery contest. 

Well later I got a bit of revenge, when I put a new frog on my monitor in the same place, knowing it would be irresistible to the feathered fiend. But what Twitch didn't know is since this was a new frog, the adhesive on the back of the sticker would be quite sticky. Yes...quite sticky indeed.

Twitch is twitching in this video because he had just taken a bath and was all wet.

Sadly, that was the last time I got the upper hand. Twitch has learned to raid my lunch breaks, helping himself to whatever he can find.

Why did Twitch have to eat the Wheat Thin on my keyboard? I'm going to be picking out cracker pieces for months. Twitch figured out that if he wants to be able to keep his stolen goods, he'd better get it back to his cage, and fast. Now whenever Twitch finds something he likes, which I call "treasures", he immediately flies off with it, usually back to his cage for further processing. How he selects his treasures is somewhat of a mystery, but I do know he likes novelty.

Another day his treasure was a rubber band:

Earlier this week it was a glass marble. Amazing he could fly around with something that heavy for over 5 minutes!

Twitch has become so grabby with things, that I think I'm going to have to ban him from having lunch with me. This is what transpired today.

The last time I banned Twitch from eating lunch with me, he just sat there in his cage, staring at me upside down like this:

It's like he's trying to trick me into taking him out again by being ridiculously weird and adorable. 

And it works.

Yes, for as much of pain as Twitch can be with all his grabby, stealy, bitey, stabby, antics, it still greatly amuses me. He may be a punk, but I love him to death. 

There is one message that I want you all to take away from this blog full of cute and funny videos. I'm sure many people who read this will think "How fun is it to have him in your office?! I wish I had a smart and sassy bird like that!" Yes, Twitch may have a big brain that gets him into all sorts of trouble, but his big brain should be in the wild. Remember, Twitch is only in my office because he was taken from his family as a baby and kept as a pet in a tiny, cramped cage, suffering from malnutrition for 7 long years. He shouldn't be using his brain to steal fortune cookies, frogs, and marbles, he should be using his brain to find bugs and seeds underneath leaves, teach his chicks how to forage, and figure out how to best torment crows and hawks. The best place to observe wild animals is not on the internet, but in the wild.

Not So Ordinary Birds

It's very common for us to take for granted that which we see every day.  Having lived in North Dakota and Colorado, Canada geese were a very common sight.  It wasn't until I lived in Florida for eight years, where I didn't see a single goose, and then moved back up north to Pennsylvania that I realized how much I missed seeing them.

Many birds that we see every day are more intelligent than one might give them credit for. Vultures, rock doves (pigeons), and European starlings all score high on their avian ACTs.  In fact, one of the most clever of bird families can be found in your own backyard.  Corvidae is the family of birds that includes crows, ravens, and jays, all of which are bird brainiacs. Recently I have had the privilege to get to know a fish crow on a personal basis thanks to my friends at the Schuylkill Center Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, here in Philadelphia. 

Crow with his best friend, Michele, of the Schuylkill Center Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic

The fish crow, known just as "Crow", was brought to the center after reportedly landing on people's heads and shoulders without any fear.  Still young enough to have blue eyes and the remnants of a fleshy gape at the corners of his beak, Crow was so imprinted on humans and disinterested in his own species that he was deemed non-releasable.  I got to meet Crow in his large outside pen just a week after his arrival at the center and was charmed by watching that big ol' brain at work.  After a brief introduction, I crouched down and started digging in the soil with a stick.  Although Crow had been skittish around me just moments before, he now boldly hopped onto the ground in front of me and watched intently as I dug.  He even reached in and tugged as hard as he could on a root I had unearthed.  Crow was watching me like a family member, learning what to eat by my example.  I picked up a mouse bone on the ground and offered it to him, which he snatched out of my hands faster than Gollum can say "My preciousssss".  Anything that I picked up and showed interest in had to immediately go into his beak.

I had the opportunity to visit Crow again in his spacious inside abode last week, this time accompanied by Mr. Nature Geek.  Crow immediately took to Mr. Nature Geek and would land on him willingly.  It seems that my novelty had worn off!  Mr. Nature Geek is as smitten with corvids as I am, and he and Crow spent quite a bit of time together exploring the velcro and zipper pulls on his jacket.  His jacket also has a pocket on the arm, which gave Mr. Nature Geek, Michele (Crow's "mom" at the clinic), and I an idea.   Most if not all corvids store, or cache, food to come back to eat later, usually by burying it in the ground.  Would Crow try to store food in Mr. Nature Geek's pocket?  Crow was offered the previous night's leftovers, a water logged and headless mouse, and what happened next you can see for yourself.

Yup, nothing says "you're my new best friend" like stuffing a decapitated mouse into your pocket.  

If given the chance, Mr. Nature Geek and myself would have stayed all day in that room playing with Crow and watching his mind at work.  The great news though is that you don't have to go far to find fascinating bird behaviors and intelligence, just take a closer look at the birds you see every day.

If you'd like to learn more about the Schuylkill Center Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic or would like to give a donation to spoil Crow rotten with toys and mice that he can decapitate, just click here!