If you’re not familiar with Magpies, they are very territorial birds that can often be seen as a nuisance. But birds are smart and their intelligence even rivals that of early humans according to recent research. But, one man discovered how to harness that intelligence to make birds work for food by cleaning up litter. Hans Forsberg is a technical professional and works with a team of Artificial Intelligence experts that are designing products we’ll use in the future.
As an experiment, he has trained wild Magpies to exchange litter for food. He is helping birds clean up the planet one bottle cap at a time! In the video, he demonstrates a unit he constructed a birdbox built from a raspberry pi computer. With it, he lets wild Magpies that hang out in his yard to clean up litter and exchange it for food. Pure genius!
Watch this Magpie trade bottle caps for food with a bird feeder designed by Hans Forsberg…
Imagine the possibilities if these birds could be trained to fetch other garbage like cigarette butts or various forms of plastic.
Here are some of our favorite comments for the video, “Magpie trades 3 bottle-caps for food. High definition” by Hans Forsberg:
- “This bird is clever enough to train a human to build a machine to supply food.” – Srivatsan
- “I’m thinking of the thousands of miles of British roadside that could potentially be cleaned by birds during the winter months. Maybe now is a good time to go to bed.” – phlanjo
- “It’s considered normal to talk to your pets but if you talk to birds in public all of a sudden you’re some crazy person.” – Superlative CG
- “AND PEOPLE SAY YOU HAVE A BIRD BRAIN WHEN YOU DO SOMETHING STUPID. LOOK AT THIS BIRD, LOOK AT IT! SO SMART ???” – Sladjana Lazic
- “Best invention 2020, train the birds to clean up after mankind, this man deserves a medal. Next, train them to pick up cigarette butts.” – Joseph Anterola
Please share this amazing bird feeder designed by Hans Forsberg that lets Magpies trade litter for food with your friends and family.
