Thomas Dzubin said:

What the heck!?! I'm home sick today, normally I'm at work this time
of day (10am) so I don't know how common this is.
I'm currently watching a bunch (family?) of sparrows grab various
stems & vines in my pea & bean garden, shake the vines violently until
they're uprooted, and then peck at the carnage. The plants have
just started flowering (it's been a VERY late summer here in Canada)
Are the sparrows going after an insect infestation or something?
I don't think the birds are actually eating the plants, just grabbing
them and shaking them.

Has anyone else seen this behaviour?

I had all my peas pulled this spring when they were just sprouted. (It may
have been a duck.)

House finches (and gold finches) would eat peck at various greens and
eat the heads of broccoli.

House sparrows used to do severe damage to corn tassels, by eating the
anthers. They seem to have undergone a major population decline here,
though, and haven't been a problem recently.

I regularly have problems with starlings pecking and pulling at all various
plants. They always seem to go after small squash plants (pecking out buds,
putting holes in leaves). This year, they completely shredded a couple of
leeks. This is only done by small groups of young birds that have been
abandoned by their parents. I think the young birds are learning to fend
for themselves. They do all sorts of rather goofy things until they either
fail (and turn into something else's dinner) or succeed and can stop pecking
at anything that looks remotely promising.

It may be that your birds scared up some type of food when they pulled
at your plants -- and so they repeated that to the point of destruction.

There are so many birds in my garden that half the mulch seems to get
tossed off the beds and into the paths every day. and any bare ground
gets tramples by bird feet! Some things I have to bird net over every
year just to get the seeds safely up and out of the ground.

Ever had a several dozen mourning doves rocket away when you've
swung open the garden gate? (They always wait until the last minute
before they leave.)

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)