Every time I mow the robins hop right over to the freshly mowed sections to look for worms and bugs. Are they older birds that learned by trial and error? Or did they watch Mom doing it? The other birds just fly away.
It seems to be behavior learned by a number of bird species.
In Texas we had egrets figuring out that by walking behind the mower in the hayfield, juicy bugs would be stirred up.
I initially thought that the barn swallows dive-bombing my lawn tractor in Kentucky were harassing me, but realized that they were doing the same thing - feasting on insects taking flight when disturbed by the mower’s passage. It sometimes feels like you’re in the middle of a WWII dogfight, but they always avoid collisions.
Quite a few species of birds will follow farm tractors which are mowing or tilling.
I think it’s probably learned; whether from watching other birds or from happening to notice once that insects/worms/mice/whatever are being stirred up and dislocated, I don’t know. But I’m not an ornithologist; I just enjoy watching them, though sometimes with mixed sympathies, especially when it’s hawks.
I had a bluejay that would do that. When I’d get the lawnmower out on the driveway to get ready to mow he would land on the concrete a few feet away and ‘talk’ to me. Then he’d patrol the areas I mowed. One of his children (I think) took over the job a couple of years later, but then it was over. Something happened to the family, I guess. They lived in a tree in our back yard.
Many birds are long-lived and intelligent. I assume it’s learned behavior. Nothing about evolution, except that evolution made them intelligent and long-lived.
I’ve seen chicken come running to follow a lawnmower.
We have Gray Jays (or Canada Jays) in our part of the world. They’re also known as ‘Picnic Jays’ for their tendency to hang around picnic areas for opportunities.
I’m convinced they’ve learned to listen for the sound of power tools. When construction workers take their lunch break Gray Jays appear.
We hadn’t see any for years until we had some reno’s done. Just a short while after the sawing started a Gray Jay appeared. It wasn’t interested in the birdseed I put out but it was very appreciative of the sandwich our contractor shared. It was here every day that the saw was running.
Haven’t seen one since.
I was excited to see this thread as I have wondered about this for a couple of years. Very often when the robot mower is running I see birds walking behind it and the outdoor cats walking behind them. Kind of a parade…
Sounds like one of my previous dachshunds.
I have three acres, one of lawn, two of forest. Birds do seem to appear after a mowing, and we have many birds, anyway. I also set out feeders, and they hear the noise of the feeder being opened up and filled, and they show up right afterwards. They are feasting on cicadas right now, so my feeders are not needing refilled as often. I think the larger birds are feasting on the bugs, however. They look to be quite a mouthful (or beakfull, rather).
I love the Canada Jays, they remind me of chickadees, my favorite bird. I do not live in Canada, so I will have to visit to see them (I would not mind that at all, love Canada!).
Also: I learned that predatory birds (crows, hawks etc), love intersections bc of the food trash that gets thrown out, attracting rodents (food for these birds). I witnessed this actually occuring one day when I saw a red tailed hawk dive bombing into the grass median, and flying away with something it its beak that seemed to be wiggling. However, the bird educator told us that this was a bad thing, since birds can be hit by cars. She cautioned us not to throw out food, etc. at the intersections (I did not know this was a thing, but I can see how it might be). Of course, that is why birds like to hang about on traffic light infrastructure too. I wonder what they are thinking…probably what those big bugs are, and why they stop and go so much.
Not bird related. Nevermind
This. Behaviors can be passed from parent to child through genetic means (instinct), or from parent to child (or from peer to peer) through observation and memory (culture). There are many, many examples of animal culture, including among birds:
The evolutionary development of complex new behaviors takes considerable time, and lawn mowing hasn’t been around for that long.
I’ve heard people refer to robins as ‘the gardeners friend’ as they will follow you around if you’re doing any kind of gardening. Within a few minutes of me being out there I hear their distinctive wing flap as they come to help me.
As for mowers, my robins have started sitting on the mower deck rather than just following me.
You also see this with birds following fishing boats.
We now hire a guy with a tractor to mow the horse pastures, but at one point I mowed with our Kubota lawn tractor. It was boring work, but the swallows following me made it enjoyable.
One of my most striking memories was mowing my back lawn, stirring up a great number of small flying insects, and finding myself in the center of a whorl of half a dozen barn swallows orbiting around me and claiming all the bugs on the wing.
Also, birds naturally follow and scavenge behind large herbivore wildlife or livestock as they graze, so it isn’t a big jump to treating a mower or a tractor as a loud cow or wildebeest.
Probably not a genetic change yet. Robins are somewhat migratory though. Like some other birds man made changes to food sources and climate could cause a genetic shift that eventually affects survivability.
Good timing, I also noticed the birds seemingly attracted to my freshly mowed grass this week. Robins and sparrows bravely swooped down to get in a few pecks before I rumbled past again with my noisy, rattling smoking grub conjuring machine. I assume there’s an odor of broken leaves or overturned soil that tips them off.
This is mine understanding as well. Mowers are just another large grazer, from the birds’ points of view.
Swallows and their cousins the swifts are amazing at that. I’ve literally had one fly through the wheel of my bicycle, while I was riding it.
But it looks more like a Korean or Vietnam war dogfight, since swallows are shaped like little jet fighters.