So what a great story ! And lots of questions. But irrespective of the
exact dimensions of the feat, one wonders if this is not yet another example
of animal behavior that is stimulus driven, but no turnoff mechanism being
triggered to end the task.
If we assume that the birds were trying to clean out a nest hole, and they
had this endless supply of quarters that kept feeding the task at hand, when
would they ever get the cavity clean enough to meet the "image" they were
seeking to achieve ? Sort of like trying to move a pile of sand with a
spoon while dump trucks keep dumping it. If you could not stop until the
pile was gone, and the dump trucks never stopped, you may never stop.

It would be interesting to have been able to keep this situation going to
see when they would have quit. And perhaps they were just genetic abberrants
that were obsessive compulsives.


Rick Howie
Kamloops, BC
rick.howie at shaw.ca