a bird in the hand? (1 Viewer)

So I'm a college kid walking back to my dorm room. And I must admit I've always had a fondness for birds. I noticed in the bushes and gardens are some very friendly birds sparrows I beleive. I was wondering if it would be reasonable to collect some bread scraps and spend an afternoon trying to get one to perch on my hand. Not to take home or anything just to see if I could. The birds live on campus so there pretty passive around people

You might get lucky, but I would expect to spend more than one afternoon. Sparrows will certainly get used to being around people, and after a few weeks of being fed, will grab food from your fingers. They generally grab the food and fly off to safety, but often land briefly during the process.

http://davidalbeck.com/photos/2013/notre_dame/i005.jpg

Once trained to do this, birds will land on your hand even if you don't have any food - then they'll give you a dirty look.

http://www.davidalbeck.com/photos/2012/willeys/i024.jpg


Also, almost any bird will perch on you if you are really still for a long time - they're not that good at telling people apart from other objects.

Chickadees are particularly curious and non-fearful, and our neighbor trained them to come to sunflower seeds, but I haven't done that myself so not sure how long it took.

House sparrows seem fairly fearless, so you may be successful getting them to first eat closer and closer to your feet, then next to you on the bench and finally from your hand on the bench. You will need to be very still and patient. Good luck!