Do birds bring gifts? (1 Viewer)

[Soup]

This is most probably a very silly question, but, here goes.

We have a pair of collared doves that visit our garden for a snack at the bird table every morning and night. We are very privileged to get lots of other visitors too!

The thing is, for the last couple of weeks they seem to have been leaving us gifts, on a daily basis, soon after their morning visit, I am finding small twigs, the occasional empty snail shell and a small flower on one occasion. It hasn't been windy not even a breeze for a couple of weeks, my husband isn't playing tricks on me, as he is out at work during the week. Nobody else can get into the garden without us letting them in.

So are they leaving us these presents?

I told you this sounded daft, but it is a genuine question.

 

[Apodemus]

This is most probably a very silly question, but, here goes.

We have a pair of collared doves that visit our garden for a snack at the bird table every morning and night. We are very privileged to get lots of other visitors too!

The thing is, for the last couple of weeks they seem to have been leaving us gifts, on a daily basis, soon after their morning visit, I am finding small twigs, the occasional empty snail shell and a small flower on one occasion. It hasn't been windy not even a breeze for a couple of weeks, my husband isn't playing tricks on me, as he is out at work during the week. Nobody else can get into the garden without us letting them in.

So are they leaving us these presents?

I told you this sounded daft, but it is a genuine question.

In a word - no. It would be quite interesting to know how these items get there, but I think you can safely rule out the idea of gifts from your avian friends.

 

[Larry Lade]

Sounds to me like it could happen. You just need to get a reliable eye witness observation of said activity. (or a video of it)

 

[mikkenzi]

dove gifts

Hello
To answer your question, this is my experience:
We live in a city but there are many gardens around. There are a few dove couples who fly around. There is one specific couple who come to our balcony and we feed them every day with grains for turtle doves.
This year, it happened for the first time. When their mating season started, they began bringing us all sorts of things. They are not making a nest nearby - we know for certain where their nest is - it's opposite ou balcony and we can see it from where we are! They actually bring us gifts when they come to have a bite! So far we have had pieces of rubber, twigs, flowers, a cork for a beer bottle, and the most recent one was a HUGE iron thingy which looked like they have stolen it from some fence They leave them where they eat and don't come back looking for them. If we take them away, they bring more. If we leave them there, they look "worried" and bring more.
We have seen them do this. I see them at it every day as my computer is opposite the balcony where we feed them We're thinking that they "think" we're like them and we need to make out nest too and because we feed them, they may think we appreciate to have stuff to make our nest with... This morning one of the dove literally "gave" a twig to my husband by putting it near his hand