Reading about these contrarian bird-nests, reminded me of some crazy and persistent birds I have known over the years. Back when I was child, we lived in a house where the dining area opened into the courtyard. There were two doors, one wooden and the other cast-iron grill. In the warmer months the wooden door was never shut during the day. One summer a couple of birds decided to come visiting through the grill and flapping around in front of the mirror that hung over a wash-basin across from the dining table. At first, we found their antics amusing but their behavior went from silly to crazy to scary in degrees. They would peck at the mirror non-stop and we worried they would hurt themselves. We started to shoo them away and shut the wooden door one they were done.
But the heat was oppressive and we would need to open it at some point and they would be back soon thereafter and resume their ferocious attack of the mirror. This went on all until the weather turned cooler and there was no reason to leave the wooden door open. In the weeks that followed, the bird hung around in the courtyard waiting for the door to open. After a while, they must have realized that the door was unlikely to open for them. They left for the balance of the year but were back the next summer. We grew used to them after a point and then one year we did not see them. Maybe they had died before their summertime tryst with the mirror. There have been other birds in my life that acted in ways that did not make sense. But nothing as crazy at the birds in the story. Birds observing us humans might some of us bizarre too - would be interesting to know what a bird considered outlier behavior in a human.
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