Magpies learned who fed them and who scared them, and marked the man who scared them

The doorbell rang on a winter morning in Sweden, and when the woman of the house went to answer it, no one was there.

Only the magpies were outside, the black and white members of the crow family she had been feeding all winter. It took her some time to catch them in the act, hopping up to push the small metal tongue on her lion faced door knocker until it sounded.

She had started by tossing out bits of food, and the birds had come to gather it. When she walked past the window inside the house, they followed her along the glass. She enjoyed having them around, so she offered more food. They began tapping on the glass whenever she walked past, and she offered still more. Then they found the doorbell. She would come to the door, find the birds waiting, and feed them, and the feeding became a back and forth game.

John Marzluff, a University of Washington professor who studies crows and their relatives, recounts the episode as it was described to him by the people involved. For Marzluff, the point is plain. The birds also learn to tell people apart. He says they clearly recognized the woman who fed them, and did not like her husband as much.

The husband told Marzluff that he did not like having the magpies around. One time he pretended to toss an object toward them.

From that day on, the magpies left droppings on his windshield each dawn. Marzluff says it was only on the driver’s side, even when the husband swapped cars with his wife and drove her car instead.

Marzluff reads the targeting as recognition. The birds remembered the threat and fouled his side of the car every morning, which showed they knew which person had fed them and which person had scared them. For birds that live close to people, that skill matters, because they meet some people who welcome them and others who do not.