There's a mad scientist brainwashing magpies to do his bidding, according to Green Matters. Well, he's a computer scientist, the magpies are being fed to pick up trash, and he's more clever than "mad."
Hans Forsberg (@LabbHasse) has been plugging away at an innovative bird feeder that can recognize when local magpies deposit specific kinds of trash. When the birds drop something off, the BirdBox dispenses a tasty reward for work well done.
Forsberg was inspired when he saw magpies showing curiosity and trying to diligently work their way into lanterns he had outside. He figured that if they were smart enough to get through the lantern's lock, they were smart enough to collect litter.
So, he started with a simple timed feeder to build trust. After that, he taught the magpies to press a red button for their food. Eventually, he was able to get them to deposit bottle caps for their serving.
Forsberg 3D-printed the majority of his apparatus using some food-dispenser plans he had found elsewhere. He's also using a Raspberry Pi computer with a camera plugged into it to analyze what's happening and to dispense food when appropriate.
Not only is Forsberg helping to keep a magpie population healthy with food, but he's also helping them help themselves. By clearing out plastic pollution, magpies are avoiding contamination of their own nearby food supplies. Magpie populations are already quite healthy and were actually seen as a pest, according to Forsberg.
"In a lot of countries corvids are seen as a type of vermin that spreads disease among open-air cafes and litter when they plunder trash cans for leftover food. Here in Sweden and in other countries there was actually a bounty for shooting corvids not that long ago. Maybe a contraption like ours could improve the perception of corvids and make people realize how intelligent these birds are," he noted on Reddit.
If you're interested in putting together your own BirdBox, the project details are available on Hackaday.io.
On the site, according to Green Matters, he noted: "It all ended up quite simple."
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