Birds Of A Feather Play Together is the name given to a new type of outdoor piano designed for birds to play. Here's how it works:

The first thing you will notice when seeing the new piano for the first time is that the keys project several feet beyond the usual keyboard. They are also of a variety of different lengths.

On top of the piano there are a number of hoppers containing the seed that ends up being conveyed internally along the length of the extended keys, emerging towards the ends via mechanical slots that open (and can close) on the upper face.

Birds landing on the keys to peck at the seeds will also cause the piano to play a corresponding note.

Various refinements are possible, such as controls that favour extra seed delivery to an order of keys in order to generate sequences of notes. In this way these rewards over time will cause the birds to learn to play a semblance of recognisable tunes.

Birds Of A Feather Play Together pianos are fully weatherproofed and positioned in such a way as to be inaccessible to pesky squirrels.
-- xenzag, Apr 03 2024

Singing_20Hummingbird_20Feeder [hippo, Apr 03 2024]

Guitar playing birds art work https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi_BBe8vfE4
[xenzag, Apr 03 2024]

I was sure we'd done this before but I think it was only as a throwaway annotation (see link)
-- hippo, Apr 03 2024


Yes - I actually thought I posted it some time ago as it was in one of my older notebooks so I checked. There is an another artist who has made a guitar that can be played birds but they don't learn how to create any recognisable tunes. (will look for link)
-- xenzag, Apr 03 2024



random, halfbakery