"These anti-bird spikes are meant to deter birds, they are supposed to scare them off, but on the contrary, the birds just utilize them," the expert added.

This nest, high in a sugar maple in the hospital’s courtyard, was massive—and looked like metal. “It just was this very big ball of metallic, nasty bird spikes,” Hiemstra says.

The crows used the spikes as part of the structure of their nests (SN: 5/12/22). But Hiemstra believes the magpies employed them much as they were originally intended: to ward off other birds.

The bird even fastened some of these spikes on the top to ward off intruders, a kind of defensive roof magpies often build with thorny branches, according to the report.

They use the bird spikes in the same way as they were intended to be used, namely to ward off other birds. SIMON: Oh, that's hilarious. HIEMSTRA: And I think that's just perfect. SIMON: My gosh.

A single strip of anti-bird spikes, typically installed on rooftops and ledges to discourage birds from perching or nesting on buildings. Auke-Florian Hiemstra And the Antwerp magpies were not alone.

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From September 1886: Confessions of a bird’s-nest hunter What’s more, the magpie nest’s spikes were arrayed outward, as if to scare off other birds.

Upon closer examination, that nest was found to contain approximately 1,500 anti-bird spikes. They had been pulled by the birds, from about 50 meters (164 ft) of the hospital's eaves.