Thanks, these are interesting ideas. I googled Ischia figs after hearing your idea and I see a lot of nurseries that say they do not attract birds. Some are a little more precatory than others like saying they are 'reported' not to attract birds are 'sometimes known' not to attract birds. Do you grow the Ischia yourself? I am curious to know if it really fools birds, especially crows who are known for being so smart. Another Ischia fig question: How can you tell if they are ripe? I love white figs but I cannot separate the ripe from the bland. I am also still hoping to hear from someone who might know from firsthand experience whether fruits that ripen off the tree like medlar, cherimoya, (possibly others?) are free from birds. I was reading a little more since my last post about cherimoya and apparently they can be grown small in containers. So, if my theory is correct that birds will not bother them until ripe perhaps I could make something work there by picking green and bringing in. I would love to hear if anyone has firsthand experience of this. Perhaps there are others fruit types as well that grow this way, but I can't think of any. With the Cherimoya at my other house, the stem would rot while the fruit was still hard and so the fruit would fall to the ground and ripen there (or inside). This seemed like a good evolutionary strategy with respect to seed spreading by animals advanced enough to carry away the fruit and eat later in distant places. So it seems like there would be other fruits that use this strategy, but having trouble thinking of any.

I used to feed stale bread to the outside birds.My neighbors dad,who lived at the house part time after retiring to Pa,,,told me it was no good for the birds. So for the last 5 years I have bought wild bird seed,..A year or so ago my neighbor told me I needed to stop feeding them as they pooped on his 50 thousand dollar truck.I told him to F off...Months later I got a warning from town saying I can only feed them with a bird feeder,...I got one,,,,Then he told me not to feed them more than once a day.At 63,with a bad hip,I fed them if I happened to see it empty whenever that was.I got a ticket from town saying the food that falls to the ground as they eat,is illegal.,,,How can people be so mean?

Great pictures, at certain times of the year, Grackle shows up in large numbers around my feeder. They dominate the feeder except for the red belly woodpecker. Fortunately, they don't stick around forever, so I don't get just grackles. Sometimes they show up in groups and they all look up in the sky at the same time (like your last picture), which I thought was weird, but it turns out that is a dominating gesture. Basically, they're all thumping their chest at each other. They all have very beautiful sheen feathers ranging from shiny black to a greenish color. When I visited my sister in California, I notice they have what looks like a smaller version of the Grackle (I think they are Brewer's black bird). But she also gets Ravens, which I have seen only once in my area (probably passing through). I was shocked to see a crow like bird size of a duck. Paul

i have a backyard flock of 12 hens (soon to be 16) all of who are either in lay or right at the point of lay, and i dont care what anyone says whether you call it a crow or not, my oldest hen who has been laying for the past 7 months now makes the most god aweful noise you have ever heard and to make it worse she is teaching all the others to do it too. now from what i have been told this is quite common practise for hens to do but the reason not many people are privy to the info is that like myne they do it during the day (keep in mind its not to say they wont or cant do it at night ) and because i am a stay at home mum the kids and i spend alot of time with them and we have heard it. i will admit they can be very shy so murphys law is that youll be with them all day and it wont be till you have turned your back on them that they do it i wonder if too they think you wont know who to blame. to be honest i realy feel for you because we too weeded out our roosters and the only reason the hens get to stay is they lay well. on the note of getting roosters to stop crowing try what you like but the fact is who is smarter them or us and look carefuly at the facts now, we are the ones trying hair brained schemes and ripping our hair out and they are laughing in their chickeny voices. my last bit of advice is do what i did and move the coop far far away as far as you can put them on your property, move your bed to the other side of the room and prey, lots and lots of praying cause if god cant shut them up no one can.