In nature, the Bayesian prior on an entity that is not a member of your species, or even your tribe, seeking an interaction with you that will ultimately be to your benefit is very, very low.
Felis Catus: OK, stubclaws, listen up. You're going to toil the fields and by the sweat of your brow fill up a barn to attract my mice. Got that? Agriculture, Architecture, the works? Good. I'd explain to you how to make laser pointers for chasing, but I doubt you'd understand ... your kind always has to work things out for themselves, anyway. Now go forth and do your best to hold this covenant, you inflexible hairless monkey.
When 082... was jus' a little baby, sittin' on their papa's knee
Well they picked up a keyboard and a little CRT
Said keyboard gon' be the death of me, lord, lord
Keyboard gon' be the death of me
I’ve also had a hummingbird come within a few centimeters of landing on my hand while mounting biking (stopped, of course). I credit my new-at-the-time bright red gloves for that interaction.
Such as knats and such, which love humans.
So they may be looking for a meal, too.
They would flit past your head when you went out to refill them, but they seldom went more than a few feet away. You could stand under under the feeders and after a few minutes, if you were calm enough, they would start be willing to land on you and rest, or lick off any syrup you had gotten on your hands.
There are several examples where small birds, mammals, fish, or even some invertebrates clean much larger animals. The exchange straightforward, large animal gets clean smaller one eats the parasites, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleaning_symbiosis
Yes, of course, but unless such a relationship is already established the odds are very much against a random encounter between different species being mutually beneficial.
These things are incredible. (Or incredibly mean?)
Parent comment would explain this observation: predators gaze upon their prey.
(flipping the arrows around, I've seen the advice to dance tango, not so much with "snappiness" as is popularly supposed, but in a predatory manner: slow stalking, interspersed with rapid pounces)
I’ve also noticed with many birds that they prefer indirect attention. This includes not just eye contact, but pointing a camera (or really anything) in their direction. Which unfortunately means I have very little photographic evidence of the many times I’ve had birds just hanging around being pleasant companions for a while.
and ... like ... non-strange people?
I must have seemed very novel and sneaky.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm already being recognized as "that weird tree guy", even on the ground, and what it would take to test that.
It can sometimes end up in a weird kind of stand off, where they can see your path is through their nest or perch but they don't really know what your intent is so you just end up staring at each other. The most aggressive I came across was a big seagull, which I'm pretty sure was protecting it's eggs since it clearly wasn't going to move, thankfully that line was easy enough that I could just figure out an alternate way around. Climbing you also sometimes get to see some of the horrific remains from the predators - One time towards the end of covid lockdowns some peregrines had reclaimed a pinnacle due to the unusual absence of climbers. When I got to the top it looked like a sacrificial temple, filled with the carcases of all the other bird species, not to mention the bees nest en route, that one was a mini adventure.
For a second I thought I was dead. But, when I heard all the noise, I knew they were cops. Only cops talk that way. If they'd been wiseguys, I wouldn't have heard a thing. I would've been dead.
-Henry Hill, Goodfellas