That last video was very short, so here’s another one. Stay with it, and you’ll see something surprising–a cockatiel protecting a cat who’s having a nap.
The birds in these videos show absolutely no fear of the cats, so they must know, maybe from experience, that the cats won’t hurt them. They could, but they don’t. I call that intelligent animals successfully adapting to life in an environment designed by and for humans.
Trust me, they’re a lot smarter than we give them credit for.
The cats see, more wary of the birds than the other way around. I was visiting a house once where there was a new parrot. The cat was trying to sneak up on it, but ended up missing some clumps of fur.
Some of the feral cats that hang around here demonstrate a real fear of the birds that also hang around. Could be that the huge hawks have caught some of them, not sure.
We have a hawk around here who’s probably big enough to catch and eat a small cat.
Animal videos are the best!
I like cats and birds.
Wish my cats were that laid back about birds. They look at our parakeets like they’re a tasty snack. I could NEVER trust them alone together.
The birds have to start training them as kittens, I guess.
My cat Henry didn’t pay any attention to the pet mice that I had. If I held a mouse up in front of him, he would briefly sniff it, nothing more.
But he was a devil, a real devil, when it came to baby fence lizards! Oh, he wanted to get the cover off their aquarium–and yum-yum! He would sit there for hours, watching them, waiting for a chance. It was up to me to see he never got it.
I have to wonder if those cats were bottle fed by people instead of raised by their mothers. I’ve heard that’s where the hunting skills/instinct has to start. Kittens entirely raised by humans sometimes never fully develop it. Our new kittens want those birds really bad, and the birds don’t trust them at all…rightfully so!
That’s a point! Hadn’t thought of that. Our two cats we have now, Robbie & Peep, lost their mother early in life and were mostly raised by a human.
But cats can adapt to that, too.