Chickadee Seems To Be Lacking A Bit Of The Old Self-Preservation Instinct

While attending my family's New Year's party in Bothell and watching the kids play in my Aunt's yard, we noticed that one chickadee seemed to be ignoring the fact that the kids were playing within feet of the bird feeder. It continued to fly in and feed, ignoring the kids. Then, a younger cousin walked right up and started reaching for the bird. One after another, the kids stopped playing and gathered around the tiny bird. It even let a couple of them touch it briefly as it perched on the feeder. I retrieved my camera, but only caught the very end of the event. At no time did the kids stop playing or being loud or moving about the feeder. It seems the bird has frequented the feeder enough without negative consequences -- my relatives don't own a cat -- to have become comfortable with a high degree of inattention. Perhaps it was ill? My aunt feeds squirrels around that tree too, and I wonder it that has something to do with this bird's seeming lack of avoidance behaviors? I've seen similar behavior with pigeons but never with small songbirds.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• bird
• feeder
• children
• touching
• chickadee
• wild
• birds
• New Year's
• 2012