Do songbirds learn to recognize people?

[Xoetix]

I’ve recently put a feeder outside of my living room window for the outdoor friends, and I’m beginning to think they’re recognizing that I’m the one feeding them - but I can’t tell if that’s just me wanting to think that, or if it’s true.

They don’t take off like they used to when I come outside, and a few times when I’ve walked to the backyard instead of the front (where the feeders are) I feel like I’m getting chased and yelled at by them, the wrens in particular - They’ll fly close enough that I can hear the wing flaps, and then sit on low branches and fuss at me. It’s wintertime, so they’re not egg guarding (not to mention they don’t even do this during baby season anyway). And the cardinal pairs also fly around and watch me, And occasionally give me what-for

 

[Khizz]

I’ve recently put a feeder outside of my living room window for the outdoor friends, and I’m beginning to think they’re recognizing that I’m the one feeding them - but I can’t tell if that’s just me wanting to think that, or if it’s true.

They don’t take off like they used to when I come outside, and a few times when I’ve walked to the backyard instead of the front (where the feeders are) I feel like I’m getting chased and yelled at by them, the wrens in particular - They’ll fly close enough that I can hear the wing flaps, and then sit on low branches and fuss at me. It’s wintertime, so they’re not egg guarding (not to mention they don’t even do this during baby season anyway). And the cardinal pairs also fly around and watch me, And occasionally give me what-for

I wish this would happen to me

I did the same (outside our dining room) and my husband loves to call me a "weird bird person" - cut to today where he's excitedly sending me pictures of various tits and blackbirds at our feeder aaaaaall day

 

[Xoetix]

The tufted titmouses… titmice?… meeces… are the big ones lately. They’re absolutely swarming everything!

 

[Khizz]

The tufted titmouses… titmice?… meeces… are the big ones lately. They’re absolutely swarming everything!

We get Great Tits, sparrows, blackbirds and a robin or two. I swear I saw a woodpecker in the tree once and I've been trying to lure him back ever since!

Incidentally, my world was shaken when I realised American Robins and our European Robins were so different! Never realised!

 

[Parutti]

I 100% think yes.

I follow an Instagram account of a friend of friend who has hummingbirds land on his finger.

And my backyard cardinal stops every morning to look at Cotton in the window, and isn't at all scared of myself or my neighbors.

We had what we called the sparrow gang in the summer - about 10 juveniles that fledged in our yards that zoomed together as a group and would zoom down right at us then back up, sparrow-laughing.

And now that we're under a bunch of snow, the birds all wait in the trees until my neighbor fills the bird feeder, getting more and more excited, then popping out around her

I kept joking that I'd be able to tame one of our backyard birds before Cotton and I still think that's true LOL

 

[Xoetix]

We get Great Tits, sparrows, blackbirds and a robin or two. I swear I saw a woodpecker in the tree once and I've been trying to lure him back ever since!

Incidentally, my world was shaken when I realised American Robins and our European Robins were so different! Never realised!

Ooooo I’ll have to look up a European Robin, I’ve never thought about it!

The yard itself, like the grass, gets a lot of starlings, but they don’t touch the feeders. Those are generally taken over by titmouse(s), cardinals, wrens, and dark eyed juncos. The blue jays try to jump in, but the smaller birds fight them off!

 

[Shezbug]

Yes they do recognise you

 

[fashionfobie]

Birds are brilliant! They def learn about you, find people they like or dislike.

There was a beautiful Australian magpie who decided he hated me. I believe he had a reason too. I was caring for baby chickens at the time. They were foraging with me. I was right there with them. Yet this magpie swooped in grabbed on of the babies (thankfully they were starting to feather and were a bit plump). He dragged baby TRex (my partner named her) across the garden and I chased him down and saved our beloved baby. This magpie held a serious grudge against me the rest of the time we lived there. All the chickens made it to adulthood. But this magpie would swoop and peg me in the head any chance he got. I needed to wear a bike helmet when I hung the washing because he would actually cause my head to bleed. I tried making offerings, via little tasty treats. But there was no getting on the guy's nice side. I don't regret it. TRex lived the longest of any of our chickens yet. She was very closely bonded to my partner. But this magpie def knows who I was. He never attacked anyone else.

 

[Shezbug]

We always used to make an effort to befriend the magpies and the plovers anywhere we lived to ensure our safety during breeding season cos I did not want to wear a cable tie helmet or ice cream tub with huge eyes drawn on it when I left the house and befriending them is so much easier than ducking from them later on lmao, my kids are possibly some of the only Aussie kids who have never been chased or swooped by magpies and plovers simply because they were never allowed to chase them or throw things at them (like so many other kids do) and were made to befriend the local ones as a first chore when we moved to new areas.
Where we live now the magpies bring their babies to our yard to learn how to forage and for rest and bathing and they will even take food from mine and my sons hands, my son can walk though their territory streets away where they swoop at all passers by and be the only person not getting swooped, lol they even swoop the people who's yards they live in lol
When their latest babies were fledging the parents would come knock (peck the window or sing outside of it) on the door really early in the morning letting me know it was time to open the worm farm and put food scraps in- I would "forget" to close the lid if they were out there so they could feast on worms and what ever bugs made their way into the worm farms.

They say the magpies will remember those who were deemed as safe and not a threat and treat them as such (usually ignore) and also those poor people that the magpie decided had done something wrong and they will hassle those they have decided are a threat/enemy even many years later, they also say that they were able to recognise children who had grown up and changed over the years - I wish I could find the article about the study done on this but I was unable to I am sorry.

 

[Mizzely]

There's a brave little finch that will come sit at my finch feeder while I'm still holding it and will stay on while I proceed to hang it I also had some blue jay babies this year that got to know me and would hang out on the balcony with me and eat. They wouldn't let any of the rest of my family enjoy their company though!

 

[fashionfobie]

Oh I did not want to get on the magpie's bad side. But I could let TRex get eaten or killed.

I have great relationships with the birdos when I can. We had a family of king parrots who used to visit us daily and a butcher bird family who chatter with me when I'm in the hammock. We love our bird neighbours. Always respect and admiration!

 

[Shezbug]

Oh I did not want to get on the magpie's bad side. But I could let TRex get eaten or killed.

I have great relationships with the birdos when I can. We had a family of king parrots who used to visit us daily and a butcher bird family who chatter with me when I'm in the hammock. We love our bird neighbours. Always respect and admiration!

Totally understandable and I can promise I would have done the same thing knowing Id become a forever target of that one bird. They are unforgiving when they are ticked off at you.

 

[Dartman]

The birds at my old rental would come by morning, noon, and evening to sit in the shore pine in the front yard and eat at the feeders we put out. The hawk family would occasionally get lucky and catch a meal, and the humming birds fought over the feeders in the window. There were generations that knew that tree and the feeders. The property manager finally cut down tree a few years before because it was infested with bark beatles and almost dead
We put up feeder stands and when we moved we gave the neighbor a bunch of the feeders. The new owners cut down most of the trees I planted and don't feed anything. We never really started feeding here as can't see the front yard and a tiny lot. We do have a bird bath out and a pair tiny ground nestors that love the mirrors on our cars and raised their families in the overgrown spots in the yard.
They land close to us and sing.