Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans by John Marzluff & Tony Angell

Author:John Marzluff & Tony Angell
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 2012-06-04T14:00:00+00:00

Ravens use sticks and branches to taunt a great-horned owl.

When two corvid species resort to using weapons against each other, the results are less predictable. Noted ornithologist Russell Balda was enjoying a spring morning in Flagstaff, Arizona, watching a lone American crow breakfast at his bird feeder when a pair of Steller’s jays arrived. One of the jays began scolding the crow, rushing at it and retreating as the crow turned to face and lunge at the much smaller jay. The jay swooped at the crow twice from a perch high on the Baldas’ roof, but the crow held its ground and continued to steadily scoop up seeds usually taken by the jays. After the second swoop, the jay flew into a nearby mountain mahogany bush and twisted off a four-inch-long pointed stick. With the sharp end facing forward, the jay held the stick in its beak and lunged toward the crow. The joust barely missed the crow, who lunged back at the jay, causing the weapon to fall onto the feeder. The crow recovered the stick and, as the jay had done, gripped the dull end, aimed the sharp end toward the jay, and lunged. That was effective. The jays flew off, and the crow followed in hot pursuit, stick in beak.

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