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This father and son duo built a bird-operated recycling machine

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By Josh Brady via SWNS

A father and son have created a fully-functional trash recycling machine that is completely run by MAGPIES.

Tomas Morsing, 57, and Olof, 20, use a 'task and reward' system to harness the Corvid's intelligence to clear trash in their neighborhood.

The basic principle involves magpies picking up litter and placing it in a compartment where it is sorted and seeds are released as a reward for the hungry birds.

They have recorded 5,000 magpies approaching the contraption to give up their offerings - between five and 30-a-day - in 10 months.

Tomas, who works in the pharmaceutical industry, went parttime at the end of 2020 to focus on new innovative projects.

He brought in Olof, who had an interest in math, programming, and engineering, to bring his idea to life.

Olof, from Gothenburg, Sweden, said: “We wanted to show the potential of intelligent birds which coexist with humans and to demonstrate a way to solve a real problem in modern society.

“We started recording footage to understand the magpies and to be able to train them to use the bird feeder.”

The duo had to put the bird feeder on a platform, then set a timer to regularly release seeds so that the magpies knew they could get food from the platform.

He added: “When they got comfortable with the machine, we added some litter all over the platform and close to the hole. The magpies were rewarded when they accidentally pushed something down the hole.

“The very intelligent magpies soon understood that pushing the litter down the hole meant they would receive food."

The pair were concerned that the birds would try to trick the machine with sticks and stones to release food without doing the good deed of recycling, but the two were proven wrong.

Tomas said: “We didn't need the sorting mechanism at all. It turns out the magpies, once they’d been trained, only collect real litter.

"We have now over 5,000 interactions between the machine and magpies. They have never collected and left anything else other than real litter

“The magpies collect about between five and 30 pieces of litter each day and have been doing so for the last 300 days."

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