I was puttering in the yard in the early evening yesterday, and as I walked in the direction of the vegetable garden, a killdeer, situated about 20 yards away, ran at full speed in my direction. Suddenly, she stopped, maybe six feet in front of me, extended one of her wings a little bit, and began walking in a tight little circle - the classic ploy of a mother bird pretending to be injured in order to distract a potential predator's attention from her young.
So, I figured she had a little fellow nearby, and looked around, seeing, to my consternation, a little ball of fluff entangled in the net where it was draped over the fence. I made a move in that direction, with the goal of seeing if I could free the fledgling, but the mother became extremely agitated and, apparently thinking that the old injured-bird ruse wasn't working, took flight and began making some very close passes around my head.
Quickly figuring out that the killdeer mom wasn't going to accept my word that I meant no harm to her baby, I went in the house and conferred with Mrs. Paco. That's when we decided to tag-team the situation. Mrs. Paco hung back a little, and I advanced toward the vegetable garden. The killdeer mom, once again, made a beeline along the ground toward me and started performing her dying swan act. I walked after her, slowly, and she took off limping and dragging her wing along the side of the house toward the front yard. While she was busy leading me on the slowest chase in history, Mrs. Paco slipped over to the net and freed the baby. Then we both withdrew to observe events. The killdeer mom ran over to her young one, piped at it several times (killdeers have a call that sounds a bit like a note played on a fife), and walked off with her baby trotting along behind her, presumably to a nest back under the holly trees. Mission accomplished!
For those of you unfamiliar with this bird, here's a photo:
The killdeer is a member of the plover family, a ground-nester that, although it can fly, seems to prefer walking (and running, when necessary).
Killdeer are common in this area. When I was young, and plowing the fields in the spring, it was common to see a mother killdeer doing the broken wing act, trying to lead me away from the nest. It always made me a bit sad to know I would plow the nest under, but the field had to be plowed, and finding the nest in the weeds would take a long time, if at all.
ReplyDeleteHere the last few years there has been a pair wanting to use my gravel driveway as their nesting site. A couple of years, they actually got around to laying eggs, and hatched baby birds. The nest is always right in the center, between the tire tracks, so I don't run over them. Two years ago, I happened to see mother lead the babies away from the nest. She led them straight for the highway, heading for the open field on the other side. I was sure they would get splattered on the highway, but they all made it across, and disappeared into the tall grass on the other side. But, they never call, or even write, so I don't know what became of'em.
Great story, Paco.
ReplyDeleteHere in Australia we have the magpies; they are a very clever bird.
When I was a kid, for some reason I decided to try and catch my own magpie; maybe I got the idea from my grandfather who had a pet magpie in an aviary in his backyard.
Anyway, I rigged up a cardboard box, held up by a stick on one side attached to a long piece of string.
Under the box I placed some beef mince, and took the end of the string to a bush several metres away and hid under the shrubbery.
Soon, the magpie came swooping down to investigate the goings on.
He stooped down and looked under the box, then he slowly followed the string all the way across the lawn to my hiding place and discovered me hiding there.
He then jumped back in surprise and flew away.
My mum was cracking up with laughter at the kitchen window.
R-man: sounds like you're well acquainted with them! There's a parcel of land across the street from us, maybe three or four acres in extent, that's undeveloped land - basically just a field of weeds bounded on the far side by a narrow strip of piney woods. Sometimes I see four or five killdeer walking around out there.
ReplyDeleteMike: Haw! I laughed out loud at the mental image of little Mike, expectantly holding the business end of that string, while the magpie thought to himself, "Whoa! Hold on a minute!", and following the string up to your hiding place. Hilarious! Clever bird, indeed!
Don't magpies talk? I mean to say, aren't they among the birds that can mimic the human voice?
They're a type of plover like the Masked Lapwings we have here is Oz which do the same fake injury routine - thought it sounded familiar, and they look similar.
ReplyDeleteLapwings can literally be a nightmare, landing on your roof at midnite or 3am shreiking like vampires, and they have spur-hooks on their wings. I got rid of the ones nesting on my roof by covering up the dents where they laid eggs.
I looked up the masked lapwing. Woo! Those things are pretty big.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you guys had magpies in the U.S.A.
ReplyDeleteThey look very similar to our magpies here in Australia.
Talking Magpie
Boy, he not only talks, he won't shut up!
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah, we've got magpies. We even have magpie cartoons.
Mockingbirds can be annoying too. My first encounter was at night in Los Angeles. As I lay in bed, a male started His were made. It was wonderful...at first, but twenty minutes or so later my enchantment began to dissipate. After a couple of days I was considering sling shots, a paint ball gun, and fireworks.
DeleteMaggie the Magpie
ReplyDeleteToo cute for words!
ReplyDeleteHi Deborah, looks like a line of text dropped out there, but this is the echoing noise lapwngs can make on your roof at 3am, sort of like a ray gun in an old sci-fi movie but more piercing:
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/jk5y57EE3aI
They aren't very big on the ground but have a wide wing span, and as I say, the wings have spurs - tourists filming their attacks on youtube don't seem to realise about the spurs (although I've never heard of anyone badly hurt but the thought of them is scary):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masked_lapwing#/media/File:Spur-Winged-Plover444.jpg
Bruce: Oops. Thanks for reading, and pointing it out. This is what happens when I don't go over the comment before posting.
DeleteThe mockingbird's call varies. Parts can be melodius, but then incorporate sounds they have heard such as car alarms and sirens of emergency vehicles in other parts. They do repetitive sections.
Mockingbirds are fearless, and territorial (even with family). Their behavior makes me believe that dinosaurs are not extinct. Surely, they were the inspiration for the Jurassic Park velociraptors.
We had a killdeer couple set up a nest -- with two eggs! -- in one of the parking lots on our shooting range.
ReplyDeleteA pair of railroad ties were placed around the nest to protect them. The kiildeers were not obviously grateful, and remained on guard until the eggs hatched.
Or something ate them -- we do have a number of gopher snakes on the range.
Deb: Go ahead and say it. Mockingbirds are the bullies of the bird world. I've seen them chase much bigger birds (e.g., crows), cats, dogs, I've even seen them dive-bomb people. They're visibly arrogant. They'll perch on the highest thing they can find, puff up their chests and just view their domain, frequently rattling off their non-stop calls - just like Mussolini on his balcony.
ReplyDeletePaco enterprises bird behaviour division: looks like we're on to something, lots of interesting observations.
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