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A project log for Vending Machine for Birds

Simple, inexpensive bird feeder that dispenses peanuts in exchange for dropping stuff in a hole. A vending machine for clever birds.

stephen-chaseyStephen Chasey 04/30/2025 at 21:390 Comments

For the past couple of weeks, a new jackdaw has been coming by to watch the others get peanuts. It sometimes stands on the platform and inspects the machine for 5 minutes or more. The regular crowd has not been around in a few days and this one has been hanging around trying to figure it out.

I put some bottle caps and a scrap of plastic on the platform to make it easier. After a few minutes shuffling things around, and flying away with a bottle cap, it was back and managed to sink the plastic scrap. 

Over the course of the day it managed to make 4 deposits. The one time it brought one to the platform on it's own it threw the ones I left for it off the platform before proudly depositing the one it brought. You can see this at 5:06. A lot of this video is just this bird figuring things out.

It also seems to look directly into the camera a lot.

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