Crows

[Nosmo King]

Got a story here. I work on an industrial estate right on the edge of town where everything gives way to countryside; on the way to work the commute passes through a busy road interchange where there's a wide carriageway with a grassy verge in the middle. By rights this should be roadkill central for birdlife - straying onto the road or flying too low to avoid being hit by traffic.
What I saw was an unconcerned crow foraging in the grass in the central reservation. It took off. But instead of taking off directly over the roadway and into the danger zone, it gained height above the central reservation away from traffic. Once it was high enough to be safely above anything coming - not just cars, but also at a height where it would avoid lorries and buses - then it crossed the road to safety on the other side and descended.
It was doing this even when the road was clear and no traffic was coming. I wondered if this was a fluke or a one-off - but no, there were more crows about. One morning I saw what looked like a couple of recently-fledged chicks, not quite adults (is there a word for them?) - and they too took care to gain safe height before flying over the road.
So - learned behaviour being passed to offspring. Is this a little pointer to speed-evolution among birds - the ones who recognise or survive a threat learn from it - and are the ones who live to breed? Seems oddy fitting it should be corvids.

Crows and other corvids are amongst some of the most intellegent of the bird world.

recently-fledged chicks, not quite adults (is there a word for them?) -

That would be 'fledglings'

 

[Erinaceus]

There was a group of five crows on the beach this morning. After a while I noticed two of them were lying on their sides, apparently playing with some bladderwrack seaweed. They stood up when they were done and walked away as though nothing had happened. I think the two in the last picture were telling the one on the ground to stop messing about because people were watching!

 

[uair01]

There was a group of five crows on the beach this morning. After a while I noticed two of them were lying on their sides, apparently playing with some bladderwrack seaweed. They stood up when they were done and walked away as though nothing had happened. I think the two in the last picture were telling the one on the ground to stop messing about because people were watching!

I think those three are this year's youngsters, their plumage does not look fully streamlined yet. So indeed, maybe they were just fooling around. Or warming / sunning themselves in the warm gravel. This seems to dislodge parasites.

 

[hunck]

My friend tells me she was woken early a few mornings ago by the sound of a lot crows cawing/squawking & making a right racket on her roof terrace a floor up. It went on for a while but she didn’t have a look to see what was going on for some reason. Being a bit early she went back to sleep.

When she got up she found feathers strewn about & a headless Jay on the terrace. No sign of the head - it had either fallen down to the ground or been carried off by a crow.

the term “murder of crows” originates from folklore: flocks of crows held trials to judge and punish members of the flock that had transgressed. If found guilty, the “defendant” was executed (that is, “murdered”) by the flock.

 

[brownmane]

I have five crows in the vicinity of my backyard (area spanning a block of about five backyards across and back. It seems that two or three are nesting close to my backyard. Yesterday a fledgling was on the ground. I managed to catch him and put him into a tree away from possible ground predators. I had all five screeching at me. They didn't fly at me though.

Crows are family orientated animals.

 

[hunck]

I have five crows in the vicinity of my backyard (area spanning a block of about five backyards across and back. It seems that two or three are nesting close to my backyard. Yesterday a fledgling was on the ground. I managed to catch him and put him into a tree away from possible ground predators. I had all five screeching at me. They didn't fly at me though.

Crows are family orientated animals.

Your good deed has probably staved off decapitation for now.

 

[Sharon Hill]

My friend tells me she was woken early a few mornings ago by the sound of a lot crows cawing/squawking & making a right racket on her roof terrace a floor up. It went on for a while but she didn’t have a look to see what was going on for some reason. Being a bit early she went back to sleep.

When she got up she found feathers strewn about & a headless Jay on the terrace. No sign of the head - it had either fallen down to the ground or been carried off by a crow.

This is interesting. About 2 months ago found a headless (American) robin in the yard. We've then had a series of piles of feathers and various pieces in our yards. Yesterday I saw a crow dealing with a Northern Cardinal. Though it was a good 200 feet away, I am pretty sure the cardinal was not dead and the crow was dispatching it. The crow ate it. I wonder now if I had the feral cats pegged wrong and the crows were the murderers. But crows attack disabled animals, not abled ones, right?

 

[Sid]

There was a group of five crows on the beach this morning. After a while I noticed two of them were lying on their sides, apparently playing with some bladderwrack seaweed. They stood up when they were done and walked away as though nothing had happened. I think the two in the last picture were telling the one on the ground to stop messing about because people were watching!

Looks like being two youngsters had been quarrelling about being fed. One stands up, and the other with beak wide agape - just goes on pleading to be fed?

 

[Sid]

This is interesting. About 2 months ago found a headless (American) robin in the yard. We've then had a series of piles of feathers and various pieces in our yards. Yesterday I saw a crow dealing with a Northern Cardinal. Though it was a good 200 feet away, I am pretty sure the cardinal was not dead and the crow was dispatching it. The crow ate it. I wonder now if I had the feral cats pegged wrong and the crows were the murderers. But crows attack disabled animals, not abled ones, right?

I know that Crows are opportunists, if they can - then they will - after all, a group of Crows is called a 'Murder,' (in UK) so that is a good indication of what they can sometimes carry out!

 

[PeteByrdie]

This is interesting. About 2 months ago found a headless (American) robin in the yard.

A European robin would have been more interesting, given the part of the world in which you reside. I didn't know what American robins looked like, so googled it. What a pretty bird! I wish we got those in the UK.

But crows attack disabled animals, not abled ones, right?

A couple of days back I saw a magpie chasing off a red kite much bigger than it. I don't know what the story was (they were busy, I didn't like to ask), but I wouldn't put anything past a corvid. The kite may have been getting too near the magpie's nest, but I've seen no such nests here. I've seen crows apparently mobbing kites for food, but for all I know what I took to be food may have been the crows' chicks. But I think if corvids see a food source they'll exploit it, they're so damn smart and cheeky.

 

[brownmane]

. But crows attack disabled animals, not abled ones, right?

It appears that they may not be that picky. Here's an interesting article:

https://www.animalfate.com/do-crows-eat-birds/

 

[hunck]

My friend tells me she was woken early a few mornings ago by the sound of a lot crows cawing/squawking & making a right racket on her roof terrace a floor up. It went on for a while but she didn’t have a look to see what was going on for some reason. Being a bit early she went back to sleep.

When she got up she found feathers strewn about & a headless Jay on the terrace. No sign of the head - it had either fallen down to the ground or been carried off by a crow.

Jays are predators of other birds, especially chicks in nests, as shown in Springwatch this week where one discovered a Wren’s nest & once found came back time & again over a period of hours til it'd got the lot - 6 chicks I think. Also filmed predating a Blackbird’s nest.

Maybe this Jay had predated a Crow’s nest & this was their retribution..

 

[Spookdaddy]

...When she got up she found feathers strewn about & a headless Jay on the terrace. No sign of the head - it had either fallen down to the ground or been carried off by a crow.

This is interesting. About 2 months ago found a headless (American) robin in the yard...

I believe that during nesting seasons, smaller bird's of prey, such as peregrine falcons, tend to remove heads (and wings and legs) to make the kill a lighter weight for carrying back to the nest.

In the first incident it might be that the noise heard was corvids mobbing a bird of prey (which is pretty common) and forcing it to abandon it's partly dismembered kill in the process - and it could be something along those lines in the second.

I have a feeling that crows and magpies tend to pick the bits they want at the kill site, rather than carry the whole back to a nest - and they often seem to be solely interested in eyes and innards, leaving much of the corpse uneaten and in one (albeit unzipped) piece.

...A couple of days back I saw a magpie chasing off a red kite much bigger than it...

Larger and more lethal seeming birds are often chased off by smaller ones because the former know that mobbing behaviour is cumulative - so what starts as one easily dealt with individual bird can become an awful lot more, and in a very short period of time. That rapid escalation in potential threat is helped by the fact that mobbing behaviour often attracts birds of many different species. I suspect one of the reasons that the bigger birds do a runner is because - although more than a match one on one - it's simply not worth hanging around for the odds to change against them.

 

[Sharon Hill]

I believe that during nesting seasons, smaller bird's of prey, such as peregrine falcons, tend to remove heads (and wings and legs) to make the kill a lighter weight for carrying back to the nest.

In the first incident it might be that the noise heard was corvids mobbing a bird of prey (which is pretty common) and forcing it to abandon it's partly dismembered kill in the process - and it could be something along those lines in the second.

I have a feeling that crows and magpies tend to pick the bits they want at the kill site, rather than carry the whole back to a nest - and they often seem to be solely interested in eyes and innards, leaving much of the corpse uneaten and in one (albeit unzipped) piece.



Larger and more lethal seeming birds are often chased off by smaller ones because the former know that mobbing behaviour is cumulative - so what starts as one easily dealt with individual bird can become an awful lot more, and in a very short period of time. That rapid escalation in potential threat is helped by the fact that mobbing behaviour often attracts birds of many different species. I suspect one of the reasons that the bigger birds do a runner is because - although more than a match one on one - it's simply not worth hanging around for the odds to change against them.

My office building hosts a peregrine nest. It is common to see heads, wings, and legs littering the sidewalk. Do smaller hawks do the same?

 

[Spookdaddy]

My office building hosts a peregrine nest. It is common to see heads, wings, and legs littering the sidewalk. Do smaller hawks do the same?

I know certain species do - like the peregrine - but I'm not sure how general the behaviour is. Birds of prey are capable of making kills heavier than they can carry, so I suppose it makes total sense that during nesting season, when they can't simply dine at the kill site, they have to lighten the load. I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that birds of prey like their chicks to feed off more or less intact carcasses, as a kind of aid to learning - so the removal of a few extremities to make the prey manageable, rather than simply tearing bits off to take them to the nest, may represent a bit of a compromise.

(I've seen a juvenile sparrowhawk take a woodpigeon in mid flight and then collapse with it to the ground. After unsuccessfully trying to lift off with the pigeon in its talons - and then around thirty seconds of effectively just sitting on it with a somewhat bemused air - the sparrowhawk gave up and flew off. Remarkably, the woodpigeon survived the incident.)

 

[Sid]

My office building hosts a peregrine nest. It is common to see heads, wings, and legs littering the sidewalk. Do smaller hawks do the same?

Sparrow Hawks certainly do.

 

[PeteByrdie]

(I've seen a juvenile sparrowhawk take a woodpigeon in mid flight and then collapse with it to the ground. After unsuccessfully trying to lift off with the pigeon in its talons - and then around thirty seconds of effectively just sitting on it with a somewhat bemused air - the sparrowhawk gave up and flew off. Remarkably, the woodpigeon survived the incident.)

This pigeon certainly didn't survive, filmed in our garden at the beginning of April.

Forgive the sounds of washing up and the poor image quality; it was filmed with my phone from the kitchen. My knowledge of identifying birds of prey is poor, but I think this is a ssparrowhawk. It tried to fly away with the pigeon when a cat walked along the fence, but couldn't lift it.

Next day the pigeon seemed to be gone, but when I went out to get rid of the feathers I found the corpse in a bush. I binned it, but wished I hadn't when the sparrowhawk came back later looking in the bush for its kill.

 

[Spookdaddy]

...My knowledge of identifying birds of prey is poor, but I think this is a ssparrowhawk. It tried to fly away with the pigeon when a cat walked along the fence, but couldn't lift it...

Yup - I reckon. A female or maybe a juvenile.

...Next day the pigeon seemed to be gone, but when I went out to get rid of the feathers I found the corpse in a bush. I binned it, but wished I hadn't when the sparrowhawk came back later looking in the bush for its kill.

A few months ago I watched a sparrowhawk take apart a pigeon on my downstairs neighbour's garden bench - looked like a murder scene afterwards. Similarly, I found part of the kill under a tree, but much later - after it had long dried out.

 

[Bullseye]

A fox recently had a young magpie (bitten through quills, typical fox) at the bottom of the garden, so you can imagine the racket every time the adult birds see a fox, quite a few times each day. They call in nearby adult birds too.
Today there was a hell of a commotion going on, went down to see what was up. A flock of magpies had surrounded a young crow, adult crows going bonkers, magpies chattering, squirrels turned up and churring at everything. Did'nt help that the crows and magpies nested about 75 meters away from each other so this sort of thing's been going on all spring !.

 

[Spookdaddy]

...Today there was a hell of a commotion going on, went down to see what was up. A flock of magpies had surrounded a young crow, adult crows going bonkers, magpies chattering, squirrels turned up and churring at everything. Did'nt help that the crows and magpies nested about 75 meters away from each other so this sort of thing's been going on all spring !.

Around here there seems to have been a notable annual increase in population of crows, magpies and jackdaws the last three or four years - followed by a proper surge this year.

Being so similar in terms of footprint, it's kind of logical that interspecies rivalry between crows and magpies increases drastically - given that they are all after the same type of resources. But what I've also noticed is more intraspecies aggression in each population - with crows turning on crows, magpies on magpies. This tends to peak once the juveniles leave the nest - the sudden presence of so many youthful birds seems to make some of the adults murderous. (I've notice this with some types of gulls too.)

There used to be a pair of ravens on my road (rare for a town, I think - although at the top of the road, you're straight into thick woodland and then the moors, which probably helped). They would get mobbed by crows and magpies occasionally - but far less enthusiastically than the latter would mob, for instance owls and buzzards; they seemed genuinely fearful of the ravens. The pair haven't been a round for a bit, and I really miss them. I have a feeling that they kept the population of other corvids down - not through predation, but simply through their presence; they are basically the daddy of all corvids, and best to keep out of the way.

 

[Bullseye]

Ravens turned up here on the cliffs about 15 years ago, never here before in my lifetime. See them sometimes flying over the Old Town (nearest part of the town to the cliffs. Even the herring gulls don't like it when the ravens are about !. Love to see them.

 

[Sid]

Ravens turned up here on the cliffs about 15 years ago, never here before in my lifetime. See them sometimes flying over the Old Town (nearest part of the town to the cliffs. Even the herring gulls don't like it when the ravens are about !. Love to see them.

I have just returned home (about 5:30'ish) after my usual couple of miles stroll ending with a walk along through my local wood.
Once inside the wood - about half way along the path in front of me, I spotted something that I couldn't quite make out, about twenty feet or so in front.
As I got closer to it, I could see it was a bit of an unusual bird of some sort, unlike anything I have seen inside the wood before.
As I approached it a bit closer, it flew up a foot or so above the ground and 'glided' forward flying slightly further along the pathway - stopping at about the same distance away from me each time.
It did this a few times as I walked along, as I approached it ~ a bit closer and a little bit slower this time, I could see that it was actually an adult Kestrel. It had a very light sandy coloured back, plum-blue wings, and a very distinct black barred fan-ending on its tail.
I couldn't quite believe how it was quite content to just stay there, as you usually only see them at some distance and there aren't that many of them around as there once was.
To my amazement... I had never seen one carry out this kind of behaviour before . . . Sand-bathing, in the middle of the path, in full Sunshine, and not at-all bothered about me being there, watching it fairly closely too.
A dog barked somewhere up at the top end of the woods, and the Kestrel flew up to sit high-up in the top of the sixty foot tall trees which overlook the lower side of the wood close to houses.
I thought I'd just pass this 'one-off' birdy encounter on, as I imagine that it might be a somewhat interesting account to note.

 

[Bullseye]

Yep, quite a few birds like sand bathing, have also seen birds "bathing" on wood ant nests, the formic acid the ants squirt (get a tissue and rub the ants with it, then sniff the tissue !) gets rid of parasites. Some of the crow family have been seen doing the same with burning embers from a bonfire !. I actually had a kestrel land on my head when spin fishing for bass on a local estuary.

 

[Bad Bungle]

I was out digging yesterday in Oxfordshire - hot, no breeze, hasn't rained in 5 weeks, ground solid and very few finds. But the chap parked next to me came back with a young crow (or other corvid) in his hands. He'd been watching it on the ground for a while before approaching and it didn't try to move away. Hoping it wasn't Avian Flu, he managed to get it to drink a little water and then went back to the car for further TLC. Probably just exhausted and dehydrated (as were we all), the crow took on more water and then went home with him in a cardboard box. I did mention he was taking on quite a commitment (I would have left it in the field), but apparently he already had a hand-reared pheasant at home that never left the house.

 

[PeteByrdie]

I was out digging yesterday in Oxfordshire - hot, no breeze, hasn't rained in 5 weeks, ground solid and very few finds. But the chap parked next to me came back with a young crow (or other corvid) in his hands. He'd been watching it on the ground for a while before approaching and it didn't try to move away. Hoping it wasn't Avian Flu, he managed to get it to drink a little water and then went back to the car for further TLC. Probably just exhausted and dehydrated (as were we all), the crow took on more water and then went home with him in a cardboard box. I did mention he was taking on quite a commitment (I would have left it in the field), but apparently he already had a hand-reared pheasant at home that never left the house.

We had a young magpie in our garden last year. Calling my animal-savvy ex for advice, she said corvids often leave the nest but their parents continue to look after them while they're on the ground. Sure enough, Mr and Mrs Magpie weren't far away, and kept returning. We put water out for junior because it was hot, and left them to it.

 

[Bullseye]

Found a young magpie drowned in the pond yesterday, a cat was resposible for it (probably mine, she kills anything from squirrels downward). I know a cat did it because the adult birds are now attacking any cat they see. Was watching them with a nieghbors cat in my garden, they'd got him trapped under a garden table, as one distracted him in front the other would peck his tail. After about 5 mins he managed to get under my shed. My cat was about 5 meters away from all this, just sitting watching it all. She's often attacked this male even though he's twice her size (think, the female equivilent of Greebo, and you won't be far wrong), so she certainly was'nt going to help out. Once the other cat had hidden under the shed the magpies started on her. She was'nt taking this sort of stuff from them so I went out to stop her killing them. They were attacking another cat outside the house, this one is a really friendly little chap, poor bugger did'nt know what was happening to him.
So the magpies are now harrassing foxes and cats, not very peaceful at the moment !.

 

[Floyd]

Every morning this last couple of weeks, MrsF has been taking the dog for a walk early on before it gets too warm and every day she has seen a crow climbing along the frame in children's play area in the park, where he then goes down the slide and onto the ground where he spends ten minutes pecking at his own reflection on the underside of the slide.
He then gives up and flies away.

 

[uair01]

This is clever:
Waiting for a bus to flatten the rat:

 

[brownmane]

This is clever:
Waiting for a bus to flatten the rat:

The rat got away if you watch the bus wheels. I can't figure out why the rat didn't just leave. Both rats and crows are smart.

 

[Sid]

The rat got away if you watch the bus wheels. I can't figure out why the rat didn't just leave. Both rats and crows are smart.

It appears that the Rat might have already been partly injured anyway, and the Crow seized it's chance (as they do) to take advantage and meddle with it, not being quite so able to defend itself - as it normally would. It also looks quite a youngish Rat too.