Fed by Birds

I've just finished reading Corvus: A Life with Birds, a sort of modern equivalent of Len Howard's Birds as Individuals, in which Esther Woolfson describes her adoption of various corvids, particularly a rook and a magpie. Woolfson's book is twice as long as it should be and could do with some photographs, but I did learn some interesting bird facts from it:

1. Doves are very aggressive.
2. Crows can recognise the scientists who work with them on a campus of 40,000 people, and will follow them, shouting.
3. Birds can see twice as many colours as humans.
4. If you keep a magpie in the house, be prepared to come home and hear them imitating the voice you use on the phone.

She also has a good account of a martial arts fight between a teenage girl and a magpie, which is not something you read every day.

See also:
Ravens Are Watching