Birds, man.
Gotta admit I’m pretty jealous of them for that whole being able to fly thing. I mean, airplanes and helicopters are awesome but it would be amazing to just be able to flap your wings and take off on a whim like birds can. No baggage checks, no long lines, no having to deal with unruly scum bags that have to be duct taped to the seats. That’d be pretty cool…
Its estimated that are between 9,000 – 10,000 species of birds on earth. Kind of wild that there are so many species of birds on the planet that scientists can’t even count them all.
54 of those 9,000 – 10,000 species of birds are seagulls, a broader name that collectively refers to a variety of species.
Seagulls are medium to large sized birds, usually gray or white in coloration accented by black markings. Their harsh sounding squawks are easily recognizable. Despite their name, they very rarely actually venture out into the open sea and more typically hang around coastlines and freshwater waterbodies.
They’re also some of the most intelligent, resourceful, and inquisitive birds on the planet. They form complex social structures within their flocks and they’ve even been known to use tools. There have been documented instances of seagulls taking pieces of bread people feed them, dropping them in ponds, and then eating fish that are drawn to the bread. They’re also known for a behavior known as mobbing whereby the entire flock will mob a predator and overwhelm it and scare it off before it can attack.
Huge flocks of seagulls are often seen swarming beaches to feed on whatever beachgoers throw on the ground for them, as feeding the birds is apparently a tourist activity. They’re often seen congregating around dumpsters and behind fast-food restaurants looking for soggy french fries, half eaten chicken nuggets, and whatever other leftovers they can find.
Those feeding habits exemplify their propensity to scavenge for food. But seagulls are actually carnivores and do quite a bit of hunting too.
They have unhinged jaws which allows them to gobble down food much larger than their beak size would indicate. They feed mostly on crabs and crustaceans, fish, and even smaller birds.
And from the looks of this video, they also hunt bags of chips too.
This cunning bird just casually strolls in the front door of this store all calm, cool, and collected like he’s not even worried about being noticed. Just as quickly as he walks in, he comes scurrying right back out the door with a fresh bag of Doritos in his beak. Cool Ranch flavored too, so he’s got good taste. It looked like he went straight for the snack aisle too, like he knew exactly what he was looking for. Then he pops that thing right open and starts snackin’.
I was expecting the bird to struggle with trying get the bag open, but it looks like he’s done this before.
Snacks on snacks on snacks.
“I was sitting in my car outside the supermarket, waiting for my wife who had just nipped in, when this seagull started walking past the door to trigger the sensor to open the doors, run inside, and grab a bag of Doritos.
Luckily, I had my wife’s phone so I was able to capture footage.”
