Guy Built A Bird Feeder That Accepts Bottle Caps For Food, And These Wild Magpies Love It
It’s mind-blowing to see animals learn meaningful tricks. Sure, a dog who can bring you a beer from the fridge is awesome too, but in today’s world, you gotta start thinking bigger than that.
Hans Forsberg works with robotics on industrial applications for artificial intelligence and had an idea on how he could put his knowledge and the family of wild birds living in his backyard to good use.
So, he trained the friendly neighborhood magpies to recycle bottle caps in exchange for food using a machine he built from scratch.
Magpies are pretty smart as birds go—so smart in fact that they now set an example with recycling trash
Image credits: Hans Forsberg
Hans has a backyard that’s home to a pair of magpies who have been living there for what seems like ages at this point. One day, Hans noticed how the curious little critters started finagling with the complex locks on his outdoor lanterns. And then a thought occurred.
The magpies were looking for paraffin candles inside the lanterns—because why not, just like crows, they love stealing—but Hans figured that these birds could quite possibly carry out more meaningful tasks.
So, he decided to build a machine with the help of which he would train the birds to collect trash around his garden in exchange for food. This was not only a fresh new project for him, but it seemed that nobody else had tried to do anything like this before as there were no how-tos on the internet, so it was all up to him.
Computer scientist Hans Forsberg built a machine that dispenses food in exchange for bottle caps
Image credits: Hans Forsberg
Whenever a magpie drops a bottle cap into the designated hole, it gets a treat from the dispenser
Image credits: Hans Forsberg
The project itself included several key components and processes. First there’s the dispenser, which is filled up with food, like peanuts and animal kibble. Whenever a piece of trash—in this case, a bottle cap—is deposited into a receptacle, it gives out one or two pieces of food.
Once an offering is given, the food is dispensed and falls down through a tube and a funnel that’s connected to a base with a small compartment where the bird can retrieve it.
The main box contains a Raspberry Pi system with a camera to monitor everything and there are also electronics and detectors hooked up below the table that the machine rests on to process and trigger the dispensation of food.
Over several years, he taught the neighborhood magpies to recycle bottle caps littered around the neighborhood
Image credits: Hans Forsberg
The adult magpies are cautious, but the young ones are keen on keeping the environment clean
Image credits: Hans Forsberg
The project is actually much more complicated than what is said here as it also involves vibrating motors, a number of very particular moving parts in the dispenser, and even its own graphic user interface to log the progress and status of the bird box. For more details, you can read up on it in his story on Hackster.
Turns out, this project has been running for several years as it’s not that easy to train magpies to pick up trash. Hans explained that he first had to get the birds interested in the feeder, to feed them regularly, and to persuade them to visit him during their patrols.
It was also a bit of a challenge every time there was the slightest change in the rig as the adult magpies were suspicious and cautious of everything. Good thing all of this changed when they had offspring. The chicks are braver in approaching the machine and partaking in this elaborate recycling scheme.
In the future, he hopes to teach them to pick up other kinds of trash, like cigarette butts
Image credits: Hans Forsberg
Check out the videos of the friendly magpies cleaning up the neighborhood
Image credits: Hans Forsberg
Image credits: Hans Forsberg
At this point, there is one chick who has fully figured out how the system works and has been hard at work collecting bottle caps to trade for food. His siblings are more mischievous about it as they tend to steal the rewards from underneath the hard working magpies’ beaks.
He hopes to move on to other bigger and better things than bottle caps—to train the birds to pick up fallen fruit, cigarette butts, and other things in his backyard as well as the entire neighborhood. Maybe this will finally put litter bugs to shame knowing that even animals partake in recycling.
Hans also made a brief explanation video of the food dispenser
Image credits: Hans Forsberg
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comment section below!
Here’s what the internet had to say about this
I think I heard of a similar setup teaching crows to pick up cigarette butts. I somehow suspect that there would be considerably morr of those (and that it may be riskier for the crows).
It might be a better idea to teach the crows to shlt on the smokers who don't throw their cigarette butts in ashtrays but on the ground. That would be highly effective.
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"... meanwhile, in the Savanna grasslands of Africa, Ostriches are stealing hubcaps from Jeeps."
How many bottle caps are in this man’s yard? OBTW the Magpies don’t like the peanuts.
"How many bottle caps are in this man’s yard?" This may be news to you, but Magpies can actually fly. They are able to collect bottle caps from OUTSIDE this man's yard too.
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If he feeds them too fat to fly, they can't collect caps anymore. :P
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This is fabulous! I hope he is feeding them appropriate food though. If the bird doesn't get the right nutrients its bones and beak will become severely damaged.
For wild birds, it's not so much about the "right" food, but more about having a wide variety of different foodstuffs. As long as there are different things in that dispenser over time and given that the birds can't feed exclusively from it (one treat at a time is not enough to feed a bird), it should be fine.
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No. Their official name is “big brain birb”
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Man, those comments are so stupid. Yeah, people already know they need to clean up after themselves. But they don’t. That’s why there’s garbage all over the place.
i can't remember the last time i saw a bottle cap in the street. does he live next to a bar
But we're you actively looking for them? These birds, with their incredible eyesight, are actively scouting for them. Not just in the street but everywhere. I think it's a great thing.
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As a long term volunteer litter picker myself, I greatly admire what Hans Forsberg has achieved, I don't agree with the comments about the birds, I used to feed crows, lots of good bird food, but I stopped doing it regularly because after a while the crows lost interest, this is foraging behaviour and it could just be boring for them to get "free" food!
Did you always feed the same food? Many kinds of birds get just as bored with the same meal every day as humans do.
Load More Replies... i think that you should puth, like, a little dish at the end of the spout the food comes out of because some of them seem to not notice the food...
Some birds use cigarette butts as nesting material. I don't know if they realize that the nicotine kills parasites such as lice, but natural selection means that more babies grow up from the nests without mites and other parasites, so they'd carry the habit onto the next generation.
My Mom trained our dog to retrieve our newspaper from the front yard, in exchange for a treat. One day, the dog escaped from our fenced in back yard. While he was out, he collected a stack of newspapers from our neighbors houses, and stashed them in our back yard. He must have been planning on selling them to my Mom for more treats.
These birdies deserve a raise. Who will teach irresponsible, lazy people to clean up after themselves?
Wonderful way to interact with our friends. A mutually beneficial cooperation. Please plan a supportive feeding program when we stupid humans stop generating junk like bottlecaps.
Maybe we can do this for humans but instead of a bird treat, a big mac drops out.
With a packet of the cheese, rather than on it, preferably, and I’d pick a Big Mac up EVERY SINGLE DAY
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It's a beautiful idea and invention... What inspired someone to do something so thoughtful and creative?!
#haiku BIRD CAPITALISM Hope it works better for them than it does for us.
This comment section doesn't permit the line breaks used in haiku. You have to insert them in your mind. One comes after "CAPITALISM"; another after "them".
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Good day I am so grateful I found your blog, I really found you by accident, while I was browsing on Bing for something else, Anyways I am here now and would just like to say thanks a lot for a marvelous post and an all-round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I have bookmarked it and also added your RSS feeds. I really love the information you provided about the fast and furious here. Please do keep up the fantastic job. I hope you see my article about Netnaija or Nonprofit fundraising platforms! https://www.makeoverarena.com/nonprofit-fundraising-platforms/ https://www.tecreals.com/mobiletvshows/
I remember a Download festival where they rewarded a full bin bag of empty cans or plastic bottles (separated recyclables) with a full can of cold beer. There were a lot of people litter-picking that year.
magpies are basically cleaning up after humans. i think that this is a good idea since people just won't clean up after themselves.
This is EPIC! I whish I had the brains to think of these things.
Maybe started with one bird using the hole in the feeder to stash it's new found treasure, then out pops a treat, does it again and same thing happens, over time the bird and other birds will learn this is how to get food.
Load More Replies...
that poor bird that was disgusted by repeated peanuts! :( please put something more edible in there..
This is cool but...I don’t think it’s a good idea to have birds carry trash around. Like, I know that they’re smart and all, but they could choke. Anyways, this is really cool.
Watched all his videos and didn't figure out how the magpies deduced a botle cap in the receptacle would trip the snack dispenser.
Poor bird HATES those freaking peanuts! You could see his/her disappointment every time a peanut came out. 🥺
I think I heard of a similar setup teaching crows to pick up cigarette butts. I somehow suspect that there would be considerably morr of those (and that it may be riskier for the crows).
It might be a better idea to teach the crows to shlt on the smokers who don't throw their cigarette butts in ashtrays but on the ground. That would be highly effective.
Load More Replies... "... meanwhile, in the Savanna grasslands of Africa, Ostriches are stealing hubcaps from Jeeps."
How many bottle caps are in this man’s yard? OBTW the Magpies don’t like the peanuts.
"How many bottle caps are in this man’s yard?" This may be news to you, but Magpies can actually fly. They are able to collect bottle caps from OUTSIDE this man's yard too.
Load More Replies... If he feeds them too fat to fly, they can't collect caps anymore. :P
Load More Replies... This is fabulous! I hope he is feeding them appropriate food though. If the bird doesn't get the right nutrients its bones and beak will become severely damaged.
For wild birds, it's not so much about the "right" food, but more about having a wide variety of different foodstuffs. As long as there are different things in that dispenser over time and given that the birds can't feed exclusively from it (one treat at a time is not enough to feed a bird), it should be fine.
Load More Replies... No. Their official name is “big brain birb”
Load More Replies... Man, those comments are so stupid. Yeah, people already know they need to clean up after themselves. But they don’t. That’s why there’s garbage all over the place.
i can't remember the last time i saw a bottle cap in the street. does he live next to a bar
But we're you actively looking for them? These birds, with their incredible eyesight, are actively scouting for them. Not just in the street but everywhere. I think it's a great thing.
Load More Replies... As a long term volunteer litter picker myself, I greatly admire what Hans Forsberg has achieved, I don't agree with the comments about the birds, I used to feed crows, lots of good bird food, but I stopped doing it regularly because after a while the crows lost interest, this is foraging behaviour and it could just be boring for them to get "free" food!
Did you always feed the same food? Many kinds of birds get just as bored with the same meal every day as humans do.
Load More Replies... i think that you should puth, like, a little dish at the end of the spout the food comes out of because some of them seem to not notice the food...
Some birds use cigarette butts as nesting material. I don't know if they realize that the nicotine kills parasites such as lice, but natural selection means that more babies grow up from the nests without mites and other parasites, so they'd carry the habit onto the next generation.
My Mom trained our dog to retrieve our newspaper from the front yard, in exchange for a treat. One day, the dog escaped from our fenced in back yard. While he was out, he collected a stack of newspapers from our neighbors houses, and stashed them in our back yard. He must have been planning on selling them to my Mom for more treats.
These birdies deserve a raise. Who will teach irresponsible, lazy people to clean up after themselves?
Wonderful way to interact with our friends. A mutually beneficial cooperation. Please plan a supportive feeding program when we stupid humans stop generating junk like bottlecaps.
Maybe we can do this for humans but instead of a bird treat, a big mac drops out.
With a packet of the cheese, rather than on it, preferably, and I’d pick a Big Mac up EVERY SINGLE DAY
Load More Replies... It's a beautiful idea and invention... What inspired someone to do something so thoughtful and creative?!
#haiku BIRD CAPITALISM Hope it works better for them than it does for us.
This comment section doesn't permit the line breaks used in haiku. You have to insert them in your mind. One comes after "CAPITALISM"; another after "them".
Load More Replies... Good day I am so grateful I found your blog, I really found you by accident, while I was browsing on Bing for something else, Anyways I am here now and would just like to say thanks a lot for a marvelous post and an all-round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I have bookmarked it and also added your RSS feeds. I really love the information you provided about the fast and furious here. Please do keep up the fantastic job. I hope you see my article about Netnaija or Nonprofit fundraising platforms! https://www.makeoverarena.com/nonprofit-fundraising-platforms/ https://www.tecreals.com/mobiletvshows/
I remember a Download festival where they rewarded a full bin bag of empty cans or plastic bottles (separated recyclables) with a full can of cold beer. There were a lot of people litter-picking that year.
magpies are basically cleaning up after humans. i think that this is a good idea since people just won't clean up after themselves.
This is EPIC! I whish I had the brains to think of these things.
Maybe started with one bird using the hole in the feeder to stash it's new found treasure, then out pops a treat, does it again and same thing happens, over time the bird and other birds will learn this is how to get food.
Load More Replies... that poor bird that was disgusted by repeated peanuts! :( please put something more edible in there..
This is cool but...I don’t think it’s a good idea to have birds carry trash around. Like, I know that they’re smart and all, but they could choke. Anyways, this is really cool.
Watched all his videos and didn't figure out how the magpies deduced a botle cap in the receptacle would trip the snack dispenser.
Poor bird HATES those freaking peanuts! You could see his/her disappointment every time a peanut came out. 🥺
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