Crazy bird?

[alanc]

I know Tilly is getting old (10) and doesn't go hunting any more, but I reckon this blackbird is chancing his arm!

[Kay]

I reckon birds are quite canny when it comes to sussing out their predators

I had a Russian Blue boy who I saw one day sitting on the garden fence just 6 inches from a blackbird, also sitting on the fence - he leant out and batted rather feebly at the bird, as if he thought it was expected of him, but the bird stayed where he was, knowing full well that he was quite safe

[fjm]

I have a family of blackbirds - multi-generations now - who nest in the tangle of clematis over my front porch. They raid my neighbours' hanging baskets for coconut fibre for nest building, then steal the cats' food off the windowsill outside the cat flap to raise their brood, so rarely have to go more than a few yards for bed and board. If I am late putting out breakfast they are sitting there waiting for me. The first year or two they alarmed every time a cat went in or out but these days they are not bothered. I should probably invest in microchip feeders for the cats, but it is difficult enough to persuade Tilly to eat enough as it is, and the windowsill is the only place Pippin can reach easily, with steps and ramp, and the dogs cannot. Meanwhile the blackbirds are getting bigger and lazier with every generation!

[Mollycat]

They probably get good at reading the cat's body language. Like a lion can stroll through a herd of grazing zebra as long as it's walking tall with head and tail up, but the moment it drops down to hide and stalk, they're gone.

[alanc]

I reckon you are all right. When the blackbird flew off, Tilly made a token pounce and swipe that was 5 seconds too late to catch anything.

[Mollycat]

Come to think of it though, blackbirds seem to have a peculiar relationship with danger.

It always seems to be blackbirds early in the morning that like to play dash low across the road right in front of your car. Maybe there is something about them? I mean, everyone's stories so far are about blackbirds, no other kind.

[Kay]

I think it's mostly blackbirds because they spend a lot of time on, or near, the ground

which might be why they seem to be less enticing for cats, because they don't flutter about flapping their wings

[Ruth B]

When I was a child we lived in a large old house with a big garden, which of course meant a lot of birds around. The local swallows tried dive bombing our cat, I guess it was their way of trying to drive him away. The first startled him and did make him move a little, the second got a hard stare as he determinedly sat where he wanted to be. The third one went tail over beak down the garden, a single well aimed paw had taken it straight out of the sky. He would also bring in larger birds, normally pigeons, and not always quite dead. Fortunately he always seemed to time it for when my Father who was a dentist, had a patient in that used to go hunting and wasn't at all squeamish about being asked to wring a birds neck, it really saved my parents trying to work out how they could but the bird out of it's misery.

Then there was Blue, our old Ragdoll, not exactly the avid hunter that some of our other cats are. However the instinct was still there. There was a time Tiggy had brought in a small bird (small, brown, running around the dining room, was all the identification it had). I grabbed Tiggy, lounge and kitchen door were shut and the backdoor opened. Blue was no where in sight. Lawrence chased the bird around the dining room, while it wasn't flying it was flapping its wings and seemed unhurt. He finally got it to the back door to get it out, just as I saw Blue turn up to come in the open door. The bird flapped and ran within inches of him and you could see his brain suddenly kick into motion and all the predator instincts come to the fore, fortunately it was about 10 seconds too late and the bird was away across the garden, Blue wasn't quite wound up enough to go chasing after it, but for those few seconds, behind that soft, blue eyed, exterior we saw the primeval hunter still lay.

Of course I can also remember watching Sam, the placid old black cat we had as a child, curled up on the grass with a Magpie circling him, hopping around less than a foot away from the cat and yelling at him. Sam just looked at him as if to say 'will you just shut up, i'm trying to sleep here'.

[Kay]

I have a magpie which actually shares the food alongside my outdoor cats - he/she is as big as they are, and bolder by a distance

they look a bit askance at the interloper, but make no move to shoo it away - and I am happy to have a bird eat their leavings rather than a load of slimy slugs

[alanc]

It tried it once to often today, and got caught by Tilly. Fortunately she brought it in straight away and I managed to set it free. Doesn't seem to have suffered much damage. Tilly went off in a huff and has gone to bed!