Archive for the 'Ravens and Crows' Category

Lunch time visitors

1 Comment »2nd December, 2007; Category: Bird Behaviour, Magpies and Currawongs, Ravens and Crows, Trip reports

Australian Magpie (Black-backed race)

2007 Australian Capital Territory trip report #10

During our visit to the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra earlier this year we took a little time out from our wanderings around the gardens in order to have a picnic lunch. For places where people gather to eat, you can be almost assured of plenty of birds who gather ready to get a handout of food.

On this occasion we were not disappointed. As soon as we sat down we had the company of several Australian Magpies. They were quite bold and would have landed on our picnic table and helped themselves if we hadnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t discouraged them.

White-winged Chough

They were soon joined by a family of White-winged Choughs with their beady red eyes. Again they were quite bold, hopping around our feet and under the table and on the fence a metre behind us.

Australian Raven

A little later on an Australian Raven elegantly walked across the path towards us, checking out why we were getting so much attention. A tiny White-browed Scrubwren joined in the fun, but he was far too quick for my camera.

A fence full of ravens

2 Comments »21st November, 2007; Category: Bird Behaviour, Ravens and Crows

Last week I was travelling through Callington on my way home from Strathalbyn here in South Australia. The day was hot – around 40 degrees Celsius mid-afternoon. The wind was still quite hot and obviously the birds were feeling it.

Just south of Callington I observed – with a little amusement – some Little Ravens sitting on fence posts along the road. Nothing unusual about that; it’s a common enough occurrence around here.

What caught my attention was the number, and what they were doing. There must have been about 40 or 50 of them, all sitting on the fence posts in a row. Just about every post on ones side of the road was occupied by a Little Raven. The occupied fence posts stretched for several hundred metres. All of them were facing into the wind, each had its wings outstretched to allow for the wind to cool them a little, and each had its mouth open.

And of course I’d left my camera home that day, so here is one I prepared earlier:

Little Raven

Clever Crows are no Bird Brains

No Comments »29th August, 2007; Category: Bird Behaviour, Birds in the News, Ravens and Crows

I’ve always known that crows and ravens were clever birds. They can be downright cunning at times. From a very early age growing up on a farm I was aware of their sneaky habits of flying into the chook yard to steal the eggs.

Over the years I’ve read further examples of these clever birds using tools to get to their food. Some of these indicators of intelligence have been filmed and shown on television. A more recent research programme has demonstrated an intelligence far beyond what was previously thought possible. The following quote comes from The Australian newspaper.

LONDON: Crows, famous for using tools, have even more impressive brains than previously thought.

Seven New Caledonian crows retrieved an unreachable snack with a stick, which first had to be obtained using a shorter stick.

This “metatool” use requires levels of intelligence and reasoning only seen before in humans and great apes.

It may have allowed humans to use simple stone tools to fashion more complex ones.

The new evidence shows a level of understanding similar to that of chimpanzees and orangutans.

University of Auckland scientists placed a meat treat out of the crows’ reach in a 15cm-deep hole. Nearby were two “toolboxes” with vertical bars through which the birds could insert bills, but not their heads.

A stick long enough to fish the meat from the hole was in one toolbox, but too far behind the bars for the crow to reach. The other toolbox contained a stone in the same position.

In front of both boxes lay a stick too short to extract the meat, but capable of reaching the long stick.

All seven crows worked out how to get the long stick and extract the meat.

Further reading:

Bird word: hackles

5 Comments »5th March, 2007; Category: Bird Word, Glossary, Ravens and Crows

Hackles: long, prominent feathers on the throat or neck, as in ravens and crows.

In the Australian Raven, our largest species of corvids, the throat feathers, or hackles, are quite prominent. In fact, this can be very helpful when identifying this species. I do not yet have a photo of an Australian Raven. In the Little Raven, the common species in our district, the throat hackles are far less obvious, as you can see in the photo below.

Little Raven

Birding Bloopers #10

No Comments »27th February, 2007; Category: Bird Behaviour, Birders, Birding bloopers, Ravens and Crows

Anthea is a regular contributor to the Birding-Aus forum. She has given me permission to quote her intriguing encounter with a Little Raven that had a very interesting taste for the unusual. And as with all the bloopers featured on my blog, Anthea thought the bird was eating something completely different.

I was on the beach at Point Lonsdale, some years ago, observing a Little Raven which appeared to be subduing prey. Heavy pecks were repeatedly directed at something on the sand, and I was pretty sure I could see a long thin tail thrashing about. It picked up the prey item and flew to a low branch. I hastily took a photo! More pecking and thrashing – was that a small black leg and foot, with claws, beside the tail ? Small mammal, say a mouse? I was quite excited by the time it dropped the item and flew off.
I hastened to investigate … It was part of a dried, black mummified banana peel divided into a number of longways strips – one narrow one was the tail, a truncated, ragged shorter part was the leg. What the Raven found to eat on it I really don’t know!

Thanks to Anthea for her contribution.