In Poland, waxwing birds love to eat fermented fruit, get drunk and then lie insensible on the pavement.
People collect them and put them in a safe place until they sober up... #OurBeautifulWorld
Thanks to @StateofPoland for the photo.
In Poland, waxwing birds love to eat fermented fruit, get drunk and then lie insensible on the pavement. 235 comments
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@JaneJohnsonBakr I was (very very) briefly SO UPSET about this photo, but then I read the text and was delighted. Thank you for posting this! @coral well I have bad news... this story has been debunked by the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/comments/108ilhf/drunk_waxwings_fake_news/ @JaneJohnsonBakr In Montreal we had the same issue with 18-20yr old Bostonians. :) @JaneJohnsonBakr Here in New Zealand it’s the #kererū (wood pigeons) that get into that kind of trouble, like these unfortunate specimens: https://youtu.be/AusFJRJcXi0 @carey I love that! You might enjoy this inebriated squirrel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJyAHjLCmI4 @carey @JaneJohnsonBakr Unfortunate? You know those birds seek that and are loving life! for it. @g1comics @JaneJohnsonBakr yes the post was gake, the photo true and sad - dead birds and apparently not on Poland. oh nooooooo😭 oh well...i've always preferred the cold hard realities instead of comfortable untruths :sadness: @artisanrox @g1comics @JaneJohnsonBakr Drunk waxwings is a thing that happens, though. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/birds-drunk-fermented-fruit-1.4892283 @g1comics @JaneJohnsonBakr One wonders what to believe alongside the birds in Aotearoa and the squirrels @g1comics @JaneJohnsonBakr I was scrolling the thread hoping that I'd find at least person doing the fact-checking. Thank you for that. It's sad that nobody questioned the authenticity of the caption. @Avishek @g1comics @JaneJohnsonBakr I agree. However, I find it more sad that we HAVE to question everything now - even photos - as real or truthful. It seems like everything is a lie, not just the obvious lies which are ignored or embraced. @JaneJohnsonBakr The neighborhood family of Raccoons would get into the mushy apples under the neighbor's tree every year with similar results. 😆 @Karstan @JaneJohnsonBakr I think I can assist you in your aim by directing you to one or two establishments @JaneJohnsonBakr this is really funny, it reminds me to the marula fruit which is eaten by several animals in Southern Africa for the same reason 😅 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sclerocarya_birrea @trobador @JaneJohnsonBakr https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8MxNLg3rCdw (drunk animals excerpt from the movie Animals are beautiful people) @JaneJohnsonBakr My mother told me that crows would do that sometimes, but not to the point of passing out. @Alchemist_Final @JaneJohnsonBakr I had a pet crow who my father shared some of a bottle of Guinness with after working in the garden. He was affected quite quickly - - wings drooping, a bit staggery, eyes glazing over (closing nictitating membranes). Had to be ushered away to sleep it off. When I lived in Houston Texas the mockingbirds would get drunk on fermented figs, stagger along the top of our redwood fence, and eventually tumble off. @Inquiry Would love to see that! Here's an intoxicated squirrel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJyAHjLCmI4 @JaneJohnsonBakr this is so cute 😄 here in Australia a similar thing happens when #lorikeets munch on overripe figs and then stagger around the place babbling to themselves before lying down for a snooze 😅 @JaneJohnsonBakr @sonyajean26 imagine collecting drunk birds to bring inside your apartment. @sonyajean26 @elisabethshelby @JaneJohnsonBakr @JaneJohnsonBakr there's a parable here ... But I'm an Al Anon person and I'm just worried for their children 🤦🍾 @SpeedOfHuman @JaneJohnsonBakr please tell me that’s not just a photo of a bunch of beautiful birds who are dead @ProgGrrl @JaneJohnsonBakr While cedar waxwings *do* get drunk on berries sometimes, but the photo looks like birds that have struck a window. This can be caused by the disorientation, and while some birds who strike windows are temporarily stunned, only to recover later, I’m not certain all of those birds fall into this category. No idea about this photo in particular (and i've never seen that many down for the count at one time), but I've personally held waxwings "drunk" from feasting on fermented berries. This has been known to happen to other birds too - but cedar waxwings are both well adapted to habitats in which they depend on this food source, and also seem to be lightweights with alcohol. source: am bird nerd @JaneJohnsonBakr I thought it was only the ones at my neighbor’s. They show up masse and eat his juniper berries and then wobble around or pass out in the branches for a while. @JaneJohnsonBakr Every day I learn how much humans and wildlife are alike 😉- this is silly and precious. Thank you to all who picked up these lil drunks and put them in a safe place. I think this article (to which I'm replying) is cc YOU @alexismadrigal :) :) I was delighted to just read your rescued cedar waxwing flew away and was fine. :) HT @JaneJohnsonBakr @JaneJohnsonBakr I saw the pic first, assumed them to be dead, started reading, and became joyously relieved. Thank you for sharing! Wouldn't it be better to put them in a place where you have gathered their family and friends to that you can stage an intervention when they wake up? @JaneJohnsonBakr sure, waxwing birds do it and it's adorable; I do it and it's a misdemeanor! @JaneJohnsonBakr that is so sweet that people pick them up and put them out of harms way while they sober up @JaneJohnsonBakr I need more information on this in order to justify my identical behavior @JaneJohnsonBakr We had Cedar Waxwings who eat fermented crab apples and then laid drunk on our porch. They need AA. I so love learning random Polish things. I didn't find out I was Polish until my 30's & had no exposure to the culture or people. @JaneJohnsonBakr When we had apple trees, in autumn the groundhog that lived in our backyard would eat the fermented windfalls and stagger around bumping into things. It was very entertaining! @JaneJohnsonBakr @JaneJohnsonBakr Bro, where are we? We had lunch in the bike lane again. It’s ok, Jane moved us. Dude, she’s awesome. @JaneJohnsonBakr In Florida the robins come down here in the winter and eat Brazilian pepper berries that are over ripe and do the same thing. Too funny @JaneJohnsonBakr lol. Threw me for a curve. At first I thought they had succumbed. Thankfully they’re just lushes @JaneJohnsonBakr My daughter’s friends called her an Uber last weekend and sent her home. Better than driving her own car but not what I would consider a safe place. @JaneJohnsonBakr This has never happened to me. I mean, the collecting and being put in a safe place until I sober up. The rest, well, yeah, I got that. @JaneJohnsonBakr (If you're one of Nabokov's heirs, I'm very, VERY sorry.) #poetry @JaneJohnsonBakr this is awesome and so wholesome! I wonder how many #natureisdrunk instances are out there. @JaneJohnsonBakr I’m not sure whether I love this evidence of the sparkling beauty and kindness or humanity, or I just want to be a waxwing bird right at this moment. Either way, thank you for sharing. @JaneJohnsonBakr i’m sorry but it’s a #fake, here is the article about it, in Polish but it’s easy to use deepl. @JaneJohnsonBakr I have been to music festivals where the camping area looked somewhat similar. 😀 @JaneJohnsonBakr In Australia it’s the Rainbow Lorikeets…they get drunk on nectar - or are having a super high sugar rush! They get louder the drunker they get. I'd like to see a link to some verification for this story. Just because it's in a Tweet, doesn't make it true. I tried to Google this and can't find any documentation of anything more than unusual alchoholic induced behavior, nothing about passing out on sidewalk to the point of humans having to move them. |
@JaneJohnsonBakr Bet they are all Leeds fans. #mot 😂