How Does The Striated-Heron Family Living in My Garden Know I Won’t Kill and Eat Them? The Look in My Eyes? My Smell? WHAT?

[GammaGlobulin]

My Dear Bird Friends,

 

 

Recently, I have been blessed with the presence of a newly-moved-in Striated Heron which occasionally wanders around in my garden carrying worms dangling from beaks.

 

Sometimes, they will approach to within about a foot of me.

 

How is it that they know I will not eat them?

 

Normally, I cannot approach birds without them taking wing whenever they see me.

 

What is so different about this bird family?

 

Should I try to feed them with the sweet tasting cake from my bread machine?

 

Is it my smell they like?

Can they detect that my demeanor is not threatening?

Do they look into my eyes and just know that I mean them no harm?

 

Also, the tiny children of the adult pair are just so cute.

 

They look like nothing more than black super-furry ping pong balls with legs.

I bet each little one would be nothing more than a bite-sized morsel if I were hungry.

Therefore, I do not plan to eat them.

Also, each little one is probably just full of worms.

So then, why do they approach me without fear when other birds fear to tread so close?

 

Curiously yours,

Gamma

 

 

 

 

[neilrob]

I would be most interested to hear the answer from someone knowledgeable. You are very lucky to be able to get so close to this family. We have Chinese Pond Herons later in the year, but they will fly away if I approach, although I certainly mean them no harm

[flyingtlger]

10 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Should I try to feed them with the sweet tasting cake from my bread machine?

That's the last thing you should do. Let it be, you are blessed that they are in your presence....

[GammaGlobulin]

1 minute ago, neilrob said:

I would be most interested to hear the answer from someone knowledgeable. You are very lucky to be able to get so close to this family. We have Chinese Pond Herons later in the year, but they will fly away if I approach, although I certainly mean them no harm

It's really so very TOUCHING for me to be able to see these tiny black, furry, ping-pong balls up so close, walking on their short toothpick-legs.  You cannot even see that they have heads, in fact; they are THAT full of fluff.

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

4 minutes ago, flyingtlger said:

That's the last thing you should do. Let it be, you are blessed that they are in your presence....

Feeding them anything was just my poor attempt at sick humor.

And, I would never feed local animals any of cheap cake-like bread coming out of my bread machine, anyway!

 

 

[KhunLA]

Lucky you.   All the birds around us, and everything else is too skittish, though the yard and garden lot is a bit small.

 

Had more yard in last house, and only resident critters that let us get within 5M were a family of Golden Tree Snakes.

[GammaGlobulin]

In addition, although I LOVE cats, I now worry that the neighborhood cat, which is also black, might pose a threat to my striated-heron family.

 

House cats, as I know, are responsible for the "decimation" of local bird populations.

 

Next time I see the black cat aprowling, I will do my best to chase him away.

 

Bad Kitty!

 

 

[Lacessit]

59 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

In addition, although I LOVE cats, I now worry that the neighborhood cat, which is also black, might pose a threat to my striated-heron family.

 

House cats, as I know, are responsible for the "decimation" of local bird populations.

 

Next time I see the black cat aprowling, I will do my best to chase him away.

 

Bad Kitty!

 

 

Trap it and drown it instead.

IIRC, one Australian state or local council has decreed all domestic cats are to be kept indoors, open season on the ones found outside.

Cats are natural predators.

Perhaps the herons have been reading the OP's posts on ASEAN, and realise he is too busy to harm them.

[worgeordie]

You are going to have to change your name to Dr.Dolittle..

 

regards worgeordie

[Lantern]

I will do my best to chase him away.

 

Make a slingshot.

[GammaGlobulin]

42 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Trap it and drown it instead.

IIRC, one Australian state or local council has decreed all domestic cats are to be kept indoors, open season on the ones found outside.

Cats are natural predators.

Perhaps the herons have been reading the OP's posts on ASEAN, and realise he is too busy to harm them.

I was so very touched by these three black balls, this morning, that I almost began to weep with joy....My First TRUE foreign friends in Thailand!

 

Yes, I will be on the lookout for that darned black cat.

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

17 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

You are going to have to change your name to Dr.Dolittle..

 

regards worgeordie

First, before completely changing my name, I must polish off this list of anagrams of my existing name:

 

Ablooming Gull
Iboga Mungal
Imbuing Gongal
Lugubrious Manga
Mongol Buglia
Nobiliary Gull
Nubile Gogmal
Globular Milieu
Globulin Gaming

 

Might take me about a year....

 

Best Regards....

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

I should also like to add something that I forgot to mention in the OP:

 

This morning, sitting outside, I had been SHOCKED to see one of the adult birds making a beeline directly at me.

 

At first, I had thought the adult was about to attack me!

 

Fortunately, the heron approached to within one or two feet of me, after climbing up on the tiled stoop outside my garden door, and after just about stepping on my toes, he just nonchalantly walked on by.

 

Is this bird BLIND, I wondered?

 

And, do I look or smell like a worm to him, I considered?

 

Nature is really a wonder to behold, if we are both patient and observant enough to appreciate all creatures, big and small.

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

1 hour ago, Lantern said:

I will do my best to chase him away.

 

Make a slingshot.

Unfortunately, I am actually not that confrontational of an individual.

 

Besides, as I stated in the OP....

I do LOVE cats.

 

 

[Lacessit]

53 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

I should also like to add something that I forgot to mention in the OP:

 

This morning, sitting outside, I had been SHOCKED to see one of the adult birds making a beeline directly at me.

 

At first, I had thought the adult was about to attack me!

 

Fortunately, the heron approached to within one or two feet of me, after climbing up on the tiled stoop outside my garden door, and after just about stepping on my toes, he just nonchalantly walked on by.

 

Is this bird BLIND, I wondered?

 

And, do I look or smell like a worm to him, I considered?

 

Nature is really a wonder to behold, if we are both patient and observant enough to appreciate all creatures, big and small.

 

 

Since your thread is on a bird jag, here are some Australian natives that will eat out of my hand. Gloved, they can draw blood otherwise.

[GammaGlobulin]

12 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Since your thread is on a bird jag, here are some Australian natives that will eat out of my hand. Gloved, they can draw blood otherwise.

Those are BLOODSUCKERS which feed on the blood of cattle.

I know those birds.

Worse than the Maasai in Kenya, by the way.

 

 

Where is Karen Blixen, when one most needs her?

 

(Please Note:  The linked UTUBE video above is NOT OFFENSIVE in ANY way!  This video should really NOT be age-restricted!!!)*

 

*I am SO THANKFUL I was not born in this New Age. I was born in the days when the world was still LOGICAL and THOUGHTFUL.

 

 

 

 

 

[Maybole]

They know they are big enough to inflict severe damage o you and you know it also , so they are relaxed in your company. Back in Scotland I used to regularly meet a Grey Heron in a burn near my house. I could approach within almost touching distance when he/she would  just stalk away just a few fee further away.

[GammaGlobulin]

58 minutes ago, Maybole said:

They know they are big enough to inflict severe damage o you and you know it also , so they are relaxed in your company. Back in Scotland I used to regularly meet a Grey Heron in a burn near my house. I could approach within almost touching distance when he/she would  just stalk away just a few fee further away.

Thank you for the clarifying this point. It sort of surprised me that this striated heron would just walk right up to me, almost as if I were not even there.

 

[chickenslegs]

On 7/28/2023 at 10:51 AM, GammaGlobulin said:

So then, why do they approach me without fear when other birds fear to tread so close?

 

Curiously yours,

Gamma

 

 

 

 

Is this your own photograph of the herons?

Please keep us updated with news, pics, and videos of the new friends in your garden. There is a very interesting topic already running here ...

 

[GammaGlobulin]

1 hour ago, chickenslegs said:

Is this your own photograph of the herons?

Please keep us updated with news, pics, and videos of the new friends in your garden. There is a very interesting topic already running here ...

 

The striated-heron photo in the OP is NOT mine.

I did not want to get too close, or close enough to take a photo with an old phone-camera, anyway.