The Bird Tree

andy10917 · by **andy10917** » July 20th, 2011, 11:25 pm

This is an innocent question about something I've never seen before...

At the hotel that I stay at for work in Lexington, Mass., every dusk I hear a crazy cacaphony of birds - it sounds like thousands of them.

Well, this week I got the end-unit suite on one of the huge buildings, and one night around dusk I went out to grab a smoke. There was a plum-colored, 14'-15' ornamental tree (no fruit of any kind) on the building end, and there were maybe 400 birds in this one tree. All the birds were jumping around like crazy and chirping like there was no tomorrow. And flocks of maybe 75 or so more birds would arrive regularly, with other flocks taking off. All sparrows.

This was not the only tree of its type in the area - the grounds are littered with this ornamental. But they all went to one tree.

It happened again tonight - same exact pattern.

They didn't stay into nighttime. No roosting.

Anybody ever seen anything like that? It was crazy.

MorpheusPA · by **MorpheusPA** » July 21st, 2011, 12:35 am

Yep, I just think of it as the Giving Tree for bird-organite. They seem to get together before bed and say goodnight or something.

bpgreen · by **bpgreen** » July 21st, 2011, 12:39 am

I've seen that around here a few times. For some reason, birds will just descend on one tree and raise all kinds of racket. Sometimes a bunch will fly to another tree en masse, then return.

And, as in your situation, there are other trees of the same kind nearby. I have no idea why they do that.

Maybe Hitchcock is planning a visit.

gruckiii · by **gruckiii** » July 23rd, 2011, 10:16 pm

I have seen it several times. I am also amused when I see 100's of birds shoulder to shoulder on the power lines and traffic light cables at an intersection. I always wonder if the engineers though of the weight of all those birds in addition to the weight of the traffic lights.

MorpheusPA · by **MorpheusPA** » July 23rd, 2011, 11:04 pm

gruckiii wrote:I have seen it several times. I am also amused when I see 100's of birds shoulder to shoulder on the power lines and traffic light cables at an intersection. I always wonder if the engineers though of the weight of all those birds in addition to the weight of the traffic lights.

My grandmother referred to that as the birds sitting "merry dot-dash" on the lines. I always liked the Morse code image, but can never decipher what the birds are trying to say!

John_in_SC · by **John_in_SC** » March 15th, 2012, 9:25 am

To dredge this post back up from the dead....

Purple leaf tree that is about 15' tall sounds like one of those European purple leaf cherry plums or maybe a red-leaf crabapple... and July is about the right time of year for it to be ripe.... which would bring in birds from every corner of the universe.... You see those plums all over parking lots around here... and they will be full of fruit (And birds) maybe every 2nd or 3rd year....

People pick those things for flowering ornamentals - but don't ever think that if the neighbor gets another variety... then they will have a pollinator - and it will bear fruit....

Thanks

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