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Calling someone a birdbrain suggests that they're a bit stupid, but there are lots of very clever birds about. Here are just a few ideas of how you can to test the intelligence of the garden birds that live around you.
These puzzle feeders involve the birds working out how to get a peanut. There are three of them. Keep reading for the first, or go here for the second and here for the third.
In the first teaser, the bird has to learn to pull sticks from the box and then has to realize that they will only get a nut if they remove a red stick rather than a blue one. It's quite a lot of work for one little bird!
You will need:
A box (any kind will do, as long as it's not too big), scissors, sticky tape, cocktail sticks, a ruler, pencil, modelling clay, paint, peanuts and a single drawing pin.
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Start by opening up both ends of your box so that it lies flat.
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Carefully cut the box across, and throw away the bottom bit.
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The bit that you're left with should be about 5 or 6cm deep and you only need to keep one flap, the big one at the back, so cut away the other three.
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To make the holes in the box take your scissors and carefully cut up the sides to open up the box.
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Starting from the edge, use your ruler and mark a dot every half centimetre or so.
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Put a lump of modelling clay underneath the box and, using a cocktail stick, poke a hole through each of the dots that you marked.
Give the cocktail stick a good wiggle so that the hole is big enough for the stick to slide out easily.
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When you have poked all the holes you need to stick the edge back together with some sticky tape.
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Now you can decorate your birdbrain teaser. Try adding a design on the front.
We've put the Brilliant Creatures logo on this one.
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Next you need to add your cocktail sticks. Snip off the sharp ends first and paint them two different colours.
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To teach your birds that red means food, you need to place two red sticks together so that the peanut can rest between them. Then when a bird pulls out a red stick, the nut will drop down. If they pull a blue stick, nothing happens.
You can see where the nut needs to be on this larger model.
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To attach your finished birdbrain teaser to a tree, push your drawing pin through the flap at the top into a piece of bark.
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Make sure that there is a branch underneath that the bird can stand on.
Now all you have to do is sit back as your birds try to puzzle it out! |
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