By Elizabeth Waddington

Elizabeth is a writer, permaculture designer and green living consultant. She is a practical, hands-on gardener with a background in philosophy

As a bird-lover and a keen gardener, I know that living alongside our feathered friends can have both ups and downs. Many new gardeners underestimate the impact that birds have in a garden, both the positives and the negatives. The sooner gardeners get to know the avian visitors with whom they share their space, the more successful their gardens will be.

My gardening journey over the years has involved a number of run-ins with a wide variety of birds, not all of them quite as delightful as you might imagine!

Pigeon Attack!

My first feathered foes were pigeons – descending en masse to my allotment to eat an entire bed of cabbages in just a few minutes, leaving only a few stumps behind. Staggered by the speed at which they could decimate the crops. I soon realised exactly why many crops on neighbouring plots were sensibly covered with cloches or a good quality, taut, bird-safe netting, or row cover.

One neighbour once put up a scarecrow to try to prevent birds from eating his plants. But I got back from work one day to see three or four birds sitting on top of it, using it as a convenient perch as they snacked on his seedlings. In my experience, traditional scarecrows never work for long, if they work at all. Carefully covering crops is often the best solution.

Noisy Neighbours

When I got my own garden, many years ago, I expanded my home-growing efforts considerably. Now with veg beds, a polytunnel, and a mature orchard, I had space to grow a lot more than I ever had before. But all that extra space meant extra challenges – and yes, some of those challenges came from our avian neighbours.

Gangs of noisy pigeons and jackdaws live in an empty barn next door to our own eco barn conversion, and, in general, we have a lot of bird life in this area. Local farmers use loud bird scarers to limit losses.

As a gardener, I’ve learned to guard against them where I can, while also sharing our abundance. I also welcome barn swallows each year, along with a range of other seasonal visitors.

Our polytunnel, along with other physical barriers, keeps crops safe for the most part, though birds still help themselves around the edges – to leafy greens and especially to our fruits.

Though I don’t mind sharing to a point, I do get rather frustrated by corvids taking a few pecks out of a ripe apple near the top of one of our trees before just moving on to the next! Some years, many of the upper apples have just a chunk or two taken out of them!

An interesting point to note is that since we’ve tolerated our pigeon neighbours rather than trying to get rid of them entirely, we also see some amazing raptors, or birds of prey, who take a pigeon out now and then and keep the population in balance. We also have a stoat who has moved in somewhere nearby, who eats the odd bird but also helps to keep rodent numbers down.

A Race for Ripe Berries

Many other birds also take their ‘taxes’ – eating and spreading many seeds and berries. Our cherry trees are really just for the birds at this point, while I find I am often in a race with the birds to harvest the other soft fruits – diverse currants, raspberries, blackberries and more scattered throughout my forest garden.

One day, a few years ago, I saw that some redcurrants were ripening before I started work, and I determined to go and get them at lunchtime, a few hours later. But the birds descended, and almost all of the ripe berries were gone before I took my break. Lesson learned. In gardens like mine where birds are welcome, berries need to be picked promptly, or protected from our feathered friends with fruit cages or other physical barriers.

Fortunately, on the whole, our diverse gardens have plenty of berries and other food sources for all. We have lots of bird-friendly plants and want to welcome them in. We do not mind sharing with our bird neighbours.

Birds are Fellow Gardeners

One thing gardeners often forget is that we are not the only ones who garden. Like us, birds shape the environment around them, and in a wildlife-friendly, bird-friendly garden space, they can be remarkably good fellow workers.

We might not always be working to the same agenda, but birds can also help us out in a range of different ways – just as we can help them out by gardening in an organic and nature-friendly way.

I have one particular helper in my orchard that I see all the time – a robin (very nearly tame) that watches me closely in hopes I will unearth some worms as I work in the garden. Of course, he is one of many birds helping me by keeping the number of pest insects down. Just as robins would once have followed rooting pigs and wild boar, now they follow gardeners, hoping that we will unearth their dinner.

At this time of year, one of my favourite sights is barn swallows (just arrived this spring from Africa) swooping around the fruit trees and catching insects on the wing. They keep pest populations in check.

Rewilding with the Help of Local Birds

Many bird visitors help wilder areas of my garden, bringing in wild seeds. I really embrace wild raspberries which grow prolifically where I live, for example – and know that these will often spread from areas just below popular perches.

At the same time, finches, sparrows and the like help keep weeds from getting out of control by eating many of the seeds. I like to leave seed heads of perennials in place rather than cutting back, for wild birds and other wildlife.

While we gardeners may get frustrated with birds from time to time, it is important to remember that they are a vital part of the ecosystem on which we depend for the yields of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers we want to get from our gardens.

Over the years, I’ve come to see birds not as pests or competitors, but as fellow inhabitants of the garden. They may occasionally test my patience by helping themselves to a crop I’ve been looking forward to harvesting, but they also bring life, balance and endless interest to the space.

From robins hunting worms beside me as I work to swallows darting through the orchard and finches feasting on seed heads, birds play an important role in the health of my garden ecosystem.

Gardening is not about controlling nature completely, but about learning to work alongside it—and sharing a little of the harvest with our feathered friends is often a small price to pay for the joy that they bring!

On my recent trip to the Philippines, I had reasons to pay particular attention to pigeons and doves. The Philippines is a good place for this family, as there are roughly 30–35 species of pigeons and doves, depending on the checklist and taxonomy used. This includes imperial pigeons, fruit doves, green pigeons, bleeding hearts, brown doves, ground doves, and introduced pigeons such as the Rock Pigeon, and quite a few of them are endemic.

ChatGPT puts the Philippines at rank three or four among the countries with the highest species count of the family. Having many separate islands helps, as the leading position of Indonesia illustrates as well.

I found this interesting and looked a bit more into it (which nowadays means asking ChatGPT about it and then pretending one did not).

So, apart from multiple islands generally increasing species counts, what makes the Philippines a particularly good place for pigeons and doves?

• Pigeons are excellent island colonizers, as many species are strong fliers capable of crossing sea gaps.
• At the same time, the pigeon family is surprisingly evolutionarily adaptable. So, new environments/islands mean new species.
• Tropical forests (as the Philippines historically were) are ideal pigeon habitat, as many tropical pigeons are primarily fruit eaters.
• The Philippines has comparatively few mammalian competitors (monkeys, squirrels) that compete with pigeons

So, back to my trip. I only went to Mindanao and Luzon, and stayed for just a few days. Still, I was more impressed with this family than I usually am in other locations.

Well, I was not that impressed with the Zebra Dove seen in Luzon …

… as it is just too common in Southeast Asia.

And while the Common Emerald Dove is an attractive bird …

… I had just seen it in Yunnan a month earlier.

But that left three doves endemic to the Philippines.

The scientific name of the White-eared Brown Dove (seen at PICOP in Mindanao) is Phapitreron leucotis. Not a very interesting name – there is no Sir Edward Leucos (1778-1823), a British citizen of Greek descent, who did get ennobled by the Crown for his dedicated services as an ambassador to Greece, but who later fell into disrepute due to his shady business dealings, partly with parties regarded as enemies of the United Kingdom.

Instead, leucotis just means “white-eared”, and maybe (like me) you get a very minor thrill from realizing that the otis in that word is the same otis used for those great birds, the scops owls.

In terms of appearance, I rather like this one. It reminds me a bit of the Whiskered Treeswift, not exactly sure why, and it avoids the flashiness of some of the other tropical pigeons, such as the next one.

Namely, the Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove as seen at PICOP in Mindanao.

Again, I am forced to write about the scientific name – Ramphiculus occipitalis – even though it is not that interesting (occipitalis means at the back of the head, presumably highlighting the purplish area behind the eyes of the bird).

Which means that again, there are few, if any, scientific papers on the species apart from such chestnuts as “AVIAN DIVERSITY OF THE FOREST CANOPY LAYER IN THE UNPROTECTED AREAS OF MT. APO KBA“.

Not true! Here is an interesting one, a paper describing nest predation by a Spotted Wood Kingfisher on a Yellow-breasted Fruit-dove nest. The semi-gruesome details are as follows: “The kingfisher finally took on the nestling, biting its head and pulling it downwards, out from the nest. This method likely leveraged the nestling’s weight for easier handling, rather than lifting it from above. However, the exact manner of eating the nestling was not captured in the footage. As the kingfisher was doing this, the parent was nowhere to be seen, and no signs of retaliation were observed. Later that same day, after the incident, the parent returned to the nest, did its usual routine as mentioned above before climbing onto the nest, and searched for the nestling, but unfortunately, it was gone. In the subsequent frames captured by the camera, the nest was abandoned, and neither of the birds returned.”

Finally, the Cream-breasted Fruit Dove (seen at Infanta Road in Luzon) is listed as Near Threatened.

However, the HBW thinks that a listing as Vulnerable might be more appropriate: “Currently considered Near Threatened. This species is at least vulnerable, since it occupies a limited range within an area undergoing severe deforestation, and habitat loss and hunting have undoubtedly caused a moderately rapid decline.”

While it is found in some protected areas of the Philippines, my understanding from talking to locals is that these protected areas do not offer much real protection from hunting and logging. Not if you are willing to bribe your local government official.

Its scientific name, Ramphiculus merrilli, commemorates one otherwise admittedly likely long-forgotten Elmer Drew Merrill (1876-1956), a US botanist who was a collector in the Philippines from around 1902 to 1929.

Lessons learned from the trip (boilerplate term from management consulting): there are worse ways to spend a birding trip than paying slightly too much attention to pigeons — though perhaps not if you’re trying to avoid scientific names, deforestation, or nest predation.

Which bird species do you think is the biggest attraction to visitors of your lodge (please only name one species)?

Andean Condor

What is the name of your lodge, and since when has your lodge been operating?

Antisana Condor Observatory Lodge

How best to travel to your lodge?

By car, 1 hour from Quito Airport, en route to Antisana National Park, after Pintag Town

What kind of services – except for accommodation and food – does your lodge offer to visiting birders? (e.g., guided tours, photography blinds, bird feeders, etc.)

Private birding tours, scenic lagoon trails, hummingbird and tanager feeders

What makes your lodge special?

Only lodge in South America with a direct view of the condors’ nests and sleeping grounds

What are the 10 – 20 most interesting birds that your lodge offers good chances to see?

• Andean Condor
• Giant Hummingbird
• Ecuadorian Hillstar
• Great Sapphirewing
• Black-tailed Trainbearer
• Neotropical Cormorant
• Andean Gull
• Shining Sunbeam
• Andean Siskin
• Tawny Antpitta

What is the best time to visit your lodge, and why?

All year round

Is your lodge involved in conservation efforts? If yes, please describe them.

Yes, we planted 11,000 native trees in collaboration with Jimenita Birding Lodge, Ecuador Bird Tours, and the Sembrando Esperanza foundation. To protect the paramo and wildlife, to create a natural corridor and sanctuary.

What other suggestions can you give to birders interested in visiting your lodge?

Binoculars, spotting scope

Do you have activities for non-birders? If so, please describe.

Only hiking trails

If any reader of 10,000 Birds is interested in staying at your lodge, how can they best contact you?

Diego Cruz, +593 99 373 2879, sales@ecuadorbirdstours.com

Louis Lefebvre’s book A Bird’s IQ:  Innovation, Intelligence, and Problem Solving in the Avian World is engrossing, not to mention highly entertaining, by virtue of the many examples he gives, over many bird species, of things they learn to do, not necessarily as nestlings inheriting innate talents, but rather later in life – how they innovate.

You probably already knew this, but hungry (or homeless, or otherwise needful) birds can be quite inventive, charmingly so, such as the New Zealand sparrows flapping around the motion sensors to a bus terminal’s doors, so they can gain entry to the food courts.

The primatologist Jane Goodall defined “innovation” thus: “a solution to a novel problem, or a novel solution to an old one,” or “a new ecological discovery such as a food item not previously part of the diet of the group.”  In the avian world, scientists have uncovered some 4,000 instances of such innovations.

It is not necessarily obvious that “innovation performance and brainpower go together,” but Lefebvre’s case for this appears solid.  His book is not merely anecdotal:  he provides much research evidence from his years of research and that of many others, including a number of his students (he’s a professor emeritus of biology at McGill University).  Some of the technical arcana – e.g., a discussion of “the size of the pallium (the nidopallium and its neighbor, the mesopallium)” in some bird species, and the like, may require the lay reader to make good use of his or her diligence or patience or both.

The book’s start is where one might expect, with Charles Darwin’s finches. Their varying beak shapes are well known, but they were also, Lefebvre shows, quite innovative:  islands like the Galapagos are demanding environments, and island birds have bigger brains than their mainland counterparts.

Why is innovation in birds important?  It can, after all, involve both benefits as well as costs, the latter category including such perils as birds who learn to eat human food and thereby suffer an increase in cholesterol levels.  As Lefebvre puts it, “the farther afield a bird ventures, the wider the variety of food sources it experiments with, and the more it invents novel techniques that give it access to new food sources, the higher its chance of encountering pathogens.”  As he concludes his discussion on this point, “if innovation were cost-free, then why would it be so unusual and surprising?”

As to the benefits of innovation, the advantages accrued, Lefebvre says they come down to these three:  (1) Survival under extreme conditions, (2) the ability to feed more young, and (3) the choice of smarter mates.

The book has ten chapters, each concerning a different aspect of bird brains, each  centering on a few species to illustrate the subject: hawks, owls, and caracaras for Chapter 7 “Killer Innovators:  Raptors”; parrots for Chapter 8, “The Biggest Brains of All”; and gulls and pigeons for Chapter 5, “City Birds,” (the latter of which, pigeons, have learned to graze on kibble in a Spanish town’s cat park – but only in the afternoon, when the cats are usually asleep):

Chapter 4, titled “One Intelligence or Many?”, addresses the controversy over “general intelligence” – the thing that may enable innovation — in all bird species.  Is there one “G,” or are there multiple intelligences for different needs?  All fine and well, except that Lefebvre feels obliged, apparently, to end the chapter with a long disclaimer about how “what we have found in birds . . . has nothing to tell us about cognitive differences between present-day groups of humans.”  His point is that such speculation would be racist, and we can’t have that.  But his coda has little to do with the meat of the rest of the chapter, and doesn’t really belong in the discussion at all; it’s virtue-signaling, nothing more.

There have been a number of good books published in recent years on bird brains, intelligence, and cognition, including by Candace Savage, and several by the fecund, seemingly inexhaustible Jennifer Ackerman, as well as others.  So it is noteworthy praise to say that A Bird’s IQ merits a place on the same shelf with those.  It does.

The book was originally written in French, which I ordinarily consider, for books on any subject, a two-strikes sort of thing, but this translation, by Pablo Strauss, is an able one, and the reader of moderate literacy or better will not be too often confused, perplexed, or addled.  Again, for a book originally written in French, this is noteworthy praise.

Finally, I will include here, under the reviewer’s prerogative, a postscript possibly of interest to no one except the reviewer:  A recent review on this blog concerned a terrific new book, Cormorant, one of the themes of which was (to greatly simplify) the cultural identity of certain birds such as the pelican and the cormorant, the former being considered, by virtue of certain supposed and/or real behavior, Christ-like, and the latter (again, because of supposed and/or real behavior), Satanic  – though sometimes the roles are, weirdly, switched.  (Remember, I said I was simplifying.)

Imagine my surprise, then, to learn from this book, A Bird’s IQ, that a pelican innovation, over the last few decades, is to feed, not gliding gracefully above the waves, but on land, fighting now not with hapless fish but with their warm-blooded brethren:

In cormorant colonies, pelicans shove parents aside to attack the young tucked beneath them; parents that refuse to leave the nest are themselves swallowed by killer pelicans.

Not particularly Christ-like, nor something that the author of Cormorant had addressed; I wish he had.  This may be a partial proof of the supposition that if you read enough books, like an infinity of them or just short of that, everything becomes connected or comprehensible, in a way that would otherwise never be.  Maybe this should be the subject of a story by Jorge Luis Borges, or maybe it already is — I haven’t read much of his stuff, so I wouldn’t know.

________________________________________________________________________________

A Bird’s IQ:  Innovation, Intelligence, and Problem Solving in the Avian World, by Louis Lefebvre.  Greystone Books, Vancouver, Berkeley, London.  May 12, 2026; 298 pp., $28.

American Robin, anting

Mourning Dove, sunbathing

Blue Jay, sunbathing

Photos by Jennifer Dudley

This post is republished in our “From the Archives” series, featuring highlights of our vast back catalogue of more than 10,000 birding-related posts published over the last 15 years or so.

The photo above shows the beginning of the Carr Fire east of Redding with the Sundial Bridge in the foreground. This is about 35 miles West of my home.

According to a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study, human-induced climate change has doubled the area affected by forest fires in the western U.S. over the last 30 years. According to the study, since 1984 heightened temperatures and resulting aridity have caused fires to spread across an additional 16,000 square miles than they otherwise would have—an area larger than the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined¹.

Fires in western forests began increasing abruptly in the 1980s, as measured by area burned, the number of large fires, and length of the fire season. Click on graph for large sized image.

Wildfires are unplanned and very damaging fires, nine out of ten carelessly started by people. If a wildfire starts in the dry season, it can burn extremely hot and destroy all vegetation for miles. Once the rains begin, the destruction from the fire also causes soil erosion which degrades stream water quality, and mudslides which cause more environmental damage.

So what do these facts mean for our wildlife? Some animals are injured and killed by wildfires. While larger animals like deer and elk are usually able to escape the fire’s path, smaller animals like squirrels, foxes and snakes are not always so lucky. Birds are able to fly away, but their nests and eggs can be destroyed. Fire can also cause wildlife to be burned, dehydrated and malnourished.

In the months after a fire, wildlife populations can suffer substantial losses due to habitat alteration and destruction. Since their habitat has been destroyed, wildlife become displaced and must spend more time searching for food, water and shelter. Displaced wildlife may travel to areas not affected by the fire, which puts stress on the displaced wildlife, as well as the wildlife that was already there, due to increased competition for available food, water and shelter.

This past March I helped a Girl Scout troupe build and install 15 Bluebird nest boxes on the Sacramento River Trail. Here’s a photo of the troupe and myself after the install.

The Carr Fire jumped the Sacramento River within a few days after it began, at the very location we had installed the nestboxes. I went back yesterday to see the devastated area where the fire jumped the river and destroyed several homes. The river trail was closed, the entrance being fenced off with keep out signs. I was able to visualize six of the bird houses that survived. Here is what the area looks like now.

An excellent Audubon article states “What do birds do when wildfires break out? No surprise here: They fly away. A fire might kill weak birds or, depending on the time of year, claim nestlings. But at least in the Western forests that U.S. Forest Service research biologist Vicki Saab studies, birds evolved alongside fire and flee in the face of conflagrations. ‘Direct mortality is not a big concern,’ Saab says.”

The article goes on to mention that fires are not all bad. Vicki states that fire benefits several bird species, like the Black-backed Woodpecker which feeds off the bark and wood-boring beetles that lay eggs in the charred trees. This was the case in the 23,958 acre Reading Fire that burned in Lassen Volcanic National Park in 2012 where I photographed this Black-backed Woodpecker.

So far this year, CalFire has responded to 3,981 fires which have destroyed 629,531 acres. Nearly three times the acreage burned in the same timeframe last year. There is no doubt, the emerging influences of climate change are now resulting in longer burning seasons and a greater land base that is susceptible to wildfire.

Here are some facts about climate change.

More resources on this topic:

• Wildfire! Toward Understanding Its Effects on Wildlife,
• How will California’s devastating fires affect wildlife for years to come?,
• What Do Wild Animals Do in a Wildfire?,

References: ¹Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Most birding tour companies schedule a stop in Bundala National Park on a tour to Sri Lanka. The reason is simple: despite its small size, the park’s multiple habitats including wetlands and dense thickets host a huge number of birds. This is also where many rare migrants are found annually, adding the excitement of possibly finding a vagrant.

I’ve only been to Bundala once, which is scandalous for somebody who has lived in Sri Lanka for several years. However, the single visit already proved the great diversity of birds to be found here, although this post’s title may be somewhat misleading the low number of rarities I recorded – and that are therefore represented in this post – does not do the place justice. The White-throated Kingfisher in this post’s featured image – one of the most common birds in Sri Lanka – is a good indicator for this contradiction. Even when you aren’t looking for rarities, you will always be entertained by Green Bee-eaters perched on exposed branches right next to the road. These birds are common in much of Sri Lanka but their tame nature and stunning colours make them impossible to resist.

The salt works in the national park are great for waders, despite their probably expansive negative effects on surrounding ecosystem health. One highlight hear is the annual occurrence of a few Red-necked Stints. I was not treated to this honour, bur still enjoyed good sightings of common waders such as Ruddy Turnstone. Like most waders, this species feeds on small invertebrates like most waders. Like the name suggests, they often flip over rocks to eat the invertebrates hiding below them. Their strength is really remarkable; I remember watching in awe as they turned around rocks nearly the size of their own body. Surprisingly, it seems that they do have quite a broad diet and sometimes also take small bird eggs, which these authors claim resulted in the abandonment of a tern colony.

The Sand Martin is a rare migrant to Sri Lanka, and Bundala is once again one of the best places to come across this species. This is also the only proper rarity I saw during my visit, in the form of two individuals in a small flock of Barn Swallows. While I know this species from South Africa and Europe, it’s always fun to see migrants in different places. Sand Martin has recently been split to Riparia riparia (Sand Martin) and Riparia diluta (Pale Martin) and I’m sure that the latter species may also occasionally winter in Sri Lanka.

I did feel as if I could not adequately explore the park given that there are so many species that can be seen here. I would definitely say that two full days would do this park justice, especially as mammals such as sloth bear and leopard are also always a possibility.