The other day I saw five dove on the ground in the yard, cruising and eating. Four kept pretty close, the fifth mosey-ing close and a little away as the group moved. Slowly and as quietly as I could, I opened and moved through the door, to see how they would respond. They mostly paused, then resumed after ten or so seconds. I moved a few steps from the door, and the goup turned around, while the 'outsider' moved farther out from the group, pausing after several steps and watching me. Eventually it continued on, maintaing the distance from the group until the latter turned left and they more or less joined. Then two of the group lept onto a storage container, facing away from the wall, the others continuing their forage around it. The other two lept up onto the wall, positioning themselves oppositely, watching for a minute or so. The 'outsider' lept up and flew over yonder to a big tree on which they tend to congregate. After a minute those on the container joined it. The two on the wall finally split, toward the tree, then veered right and away.


I haven't seen such calculated behavior in a group of birds. Five of them.
 
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I forgot to mention: that afternoon I went out and took a nap on the porch. Woke and started rising, and three dove swooped over the roof edge and landed in front of me. I paused. The right one got enough of an eye of my movement and had a skittish nature, so split. The other two apparently hadn't and didn't, so they stayed, one eyeing and dipping at the pool. I spoke to them and they flew off.
 
Oct 7, 2020
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I forgot to mention: that afternoon I went out and took a nap on the porch. Woke and started rising, and three dove swooped over the roof edge and landed in front of me. I paused. The right one got enough of an eye of my movement and had a skittish nature, so split. The other two apparently hadn't and didn't, so they stayed, one eyeing and dipping at the pool. I spoke to them and they flew off.

Maybe they knew you... New research suggests that some birds may know who their human friends are, as they are able to recognize people's faces and differentiate between human voices. ... Being able to identify a friend or potential foe could be key to the bird's ability to survive.
 
I have had interactions with some of them, in particular a couple whom I allowed to have young under my porch twice last year (they picked a tree in the neighbor's yard this year....no poop from the youngens on my porch....), the male of which I can tell by his hoarse voice when he speaks.