Many people from around the world love to feed birds, however the ultimate thrill is evidently hand-feeding one. To do so takes weeks of patience; a thing most moderns lack in abundance. Roy Reiman, publisher of Country Magazine, relates the following in the January, 2001, issue (p.23).
It seems the potential hand-feeding human must stand still for a half an hour or more, each day, at the same time, some distance from the non-human feeder, wearing the same clothes. On each successive day the subject moves a step or so closer to the stationary feeder, finally arriving in a position immediately next to the feeder. When one “feels” the birds are ready, you remove the feed from the feeder or cover it, placing feed in the palm until, what the author calls, one has his “first close encounter of the bird kind.”
Needless to say not many people have the patience or time to carry out this kind of experiment – especially considering the rewards are infrequent.
In researching how to reduce the time involved, Reiman and his associates hit upon a surrogate hand-feeder – a dummy painted to appear human and wearing the selected clothing of the eventual hand-feeder. The birds seem clueless as to the dangers which exist in this seemingly innocuous provider of good things.
They have even developed one which sits in a patio chair, holding forth a hand filled with seed. The later is now being adapted for use in convalescent and nursing homes for wheelchair bound seniors. This is good news for folks who can’t travel much or who get easily bored with life for lack of anything to keep them busy.