This photo is tiny but it shows the pecking order in the sky.
The bird on the left is an osprey, the middle one’s a bald eagle, the right one is a raven. Click here or on the photo to see a full size image with a better view of the birds.
The bald eagle wants the osprey’s fish. The raven’s harassing the bald eagle. It’s unusual that all three lined up in one big chase.
“I’m gonna get you!”
(photo by Ciar via Wikimedia Commons. Click here to see the original photo with documentation.)
Throw Back Thursday (TBT):
As birds fly overhead they notice things we humans cannot see because we’re stuck on the ground with a narrow perspective.
Most birds ignore our activity but crows pay attention to humans and watch for things of interest. How else could they find out it’s Garbage Day and show up just in time to poke holes on in our garbage bags?
In February 2011 there was an early morning mystery on my street. At dawn, the crows leaving the winter roost flew over my neighborhood and saw it below. Each flock paused, circled above, and cawed loudly. Click here to read what happened that morning. The crows were the first to know.
This fall Pittsburgh’s winter crow roost has settled in the Hill District above Bigelow Boulevard near Cliff Street. Because of its location very few crows fly over my neighborhood at dawn.
If there’s a mystery this winter it will have to wait for us humans to discover it.
(photo by Brian Herman)
On Halloween I posted a video showing how crows recognize their enemies. Libby Strizzi wondered, do they recognize their friends? You bet!
In Gifts of the Crow John Marzluff, who conducted the face-recognition experiments at University of Washington, tells how the same American crows that harass the mask-face fly to perch near Lijana Holmes when she arrives on campus. She feeds them a breakfast of eggs and meat every day. It’s not just the food. Crows know who their friends are.
In this video from Germany “Rabenvater” offers treats to hooded and carrion crows and records their antics. He feeds them often (see his many crow videos) and they trust him. Their relationship is so amazing that spectators pause to watch.
Not only do the crows trust him, they’re willing to raid his pocket that holds the treats. Watch at 2:30 as a hooded crow thinks about the pocket and at 3:40 when a carrion crow spends time pulling out the treats and throwing away the peanuts.
Crows recognize their friends.
(YouTube video by Rabenvater)
31 October 2014
On Halloween, here’s a scary thought. If you’re an enemy to crows, they remember your face and harass you.
John Marzluff from the University of Washington shows how they remember their enemies in this clip from A Murder of Crows.
He investigated the phenomenon because he, like other crow researchers, was routinely harassed by crows after he captured and banded their young. Were they remembering his clothing? No, they remembered his face.
Perhaps you or a friend have experienced this too. For instance…
Mike Olaugh of Minneapolis left a comment on my blog about blue jays and added this note about crows. “The Crows … are ubiquitous no matter the conditions. We are near a cemetery and they have lived there for a century. I learned when I first moved here 20 years ago to leave them alone. They ganged up on my car and dropped on it en masse for a whole season. (I was trying to get them to stop roosting across the alley.)”
The crows recognized Mike and did something to drive him nuts until he left them alone.
Moral of the story: If you harass crows, you may have to wear a mask.
Happy Halloween. 😉
(YouTube video excerpt from PBS NATURE posted by Simon and Schuster as a promo for Marzluff and Angell’s 2012 book Gifts of the Crow)
Not everyone is as enthusiastic about winter crows as I am. If you walk or park your car beneath the roosts you’re surely disgusted by the mess they make. What to do? Move the crows.
Central New York state has lots of experience with crow wrangling. At times Auburn has had 70,000 winter crows, more than two and a half times their human population of 28,000. Years of trial and error have shown that killing crows doesn’t work but moving them does.
So now, Central New York gets ready every autumn to move the crows to locations that aren’t so bothersome. This August 2012 video shows a seminar in Baldwinsville, 20 miles northeast of Auburn … as the crow flies.
Move along, crows. Move along!
(YouTube from Central New York, WSTM)
20 October 2014
Last month the crows had a meeting up north.
What are we going to do when it gets cold? We can’t stay here.
Yup. These fields have grasshoppers now but they’ll be bare as soon as the frost hits.
Vince told me there are some nice places south of here in the Ohio Valley. He recommended Wheeling Island and Pittsburgh.
I hear Pittsburgh’s great, especially the East End. Everyone had a great time last year. Stay away from the Cathedral of Learning, though. Peregrines live there.
OK, so we’ll go to Pittsburgh.
When do we leave?
In October.
In the past few days Anne-Marie, Julie and Anne have seen flocks of crows at dusk in Shadyside and Oakland.
The crows are back in town. Woo hoo!
(photo by Tom Harpel via Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)
This is a test. For the next 3+ minutes wild New Caledonian crows will solve six physics problems in water displacement.
What will raise the floating treat? If there are two treats which method is fastest? The challenges are:
In the video the crows solve every problem but behind the scenes they faltered on the U-tube test so the scientists say they flunked it.
How quickly can you solve these physics problems? Be quick on the U-tube test or else …
This experiment was tried with New Caledonian crows, Eurasian jays, and human children. Read all about it here in PLOS One.
My favorite quote from the Discussion is: “The results from the current U-tube experiment suggest that New Caledonian crows are comparable to Eurasian jays, but differ from human children.” 😉
(video from PLOS Media on YouTube)
Tired of being outdone by celebrity bald eagles and peregrine falcons, ravens have decided to get into the act.
Last October a pair of common ravens chose Wellesley College as the smart place to be. Over the winter they scoped out the campus and evaluated future nest sites. By March it was evident they’d made a wise choice when they built their nest on a high fire escape at the Science Center. Their platform is enclosed by glass on three sides so they have great views and less wind.
They also have electricity, an Internet connection and night lights — perfect for a webcam — so Pauline and Henry are now celebrities.
Named for the founders of Wellesley College, Pauline and Henry’s choice probably shocked the local raven population. “What were you thinking!? Humans are unpredictably dangerous! We never nest that close to them.” But their unique choice has given them shelter while we get a window on their world.
Pauline laid two eggs in March, one hatched in early April, and now their nestling is growing every day. Unlike peregrine falcon chicks, raven babies are not cute, fluffy and white. Instead they’re born naked and awkward with a very large mouth. When the parents come to the nest “the mouth” opens to show off its red interior. In the weeks ahead the mouth will stay red but the body will transform into a feathered juvenile raven, one of the smartest birds on earth.
Smartly clothed in black, Pauline and Henry are happy to share their lives with you on camera. Click here or on the screenshot above to watch them online.
(screenshot from the Wellesley College ravencam)
p.s. When ravens blink their nictitating membranes, their eyes look white. Very cool!
Kick back for a moment with this Earth UnPlugged video from BBC Worldwide.
First published last August, it compares the flight styles of peregrines and ravens using slow motion high definition video. You’ll see how the peregrine is built for speed and precision, the raven for aerobatics.
Another difference, something you can’t see, is in their attitude toward the flight exercise. Both are trained birds but they have completely different reasons for participating — and it’s a difference between the two species.
The peregrine is all business. He’s hunting and focused, no playing around. He associates with his trainer for business reasons and has a radio tag in case he decides to leave.
The raven is out there for social reasons. He’s spending time with his favorite “raven,” doing some cool maneuvers to capture airborne food, flying along with his mate. (The raven considers his trainer to be his mate.)
The radio tag is also a subtle key to these individual birds’ personalities. The young peregrine could hunt anywhere. If he breaks training he’ll fly away. The raven is so bonded to his “mate” that his trainer knows he’ll never leave.
Enjoy the video. Happy Friday!
(video by Earth UnPlugged, a BBC Worldwide channel on YouTube)
We all know that wearing black is hot in the sun but did you know that it’s cooler than other colors when there’s a breeze?
According to page 154 of Ornithology by Frank B. Gill: “The cooling effects of wind are most pronounced on black feathers, which concentrate solar heat near the surface of the plumage. Black feathers can increase the amount of heat that a bird’s body absorbs from the environment when there is no breeze. A light breeze, however, removes the accumulating surface heat and reduces further penetration of the radiant heat.”
“The black plumage of desert ravens increases convective heat loss, as do the robes and tents of Bedouin tribes in the Sahara.”
Whoa! Black tents! I had no idea people used black tents in the desert. (Obviously I’ve not been paying attention.)
Here’s a photo of a Bedouin tent in Jordan. Notice that the top is black! The cloth is woven from the hair of their black goats.
Use of black tents is not restricted to the Bedouin tribes in the Sahara and Middle East. The color is popular in the middle of the arid lands that stretch from Africa to Asia as shown on this map from The Black Tent in Its Easternmost Distribution: The Case of the Tibetan Plateau by Angela Manderscheid.
People learned that black is cooler in the desert and adapted accordingly.
The raven knew that black was cool long before people found out. His outspread wings look like a black tent.
(photo of a raven landing near a tent in Death Valley National Park via Wikimedia Commons. Photo of a Bedouin tent by Anita Gould, Creative Commons license via Flickr. Click on the images to see the originals. Today’s Tenth Page is inspired by page 154 of Ornithology by Frank B. Gill.)
excerpt link to Afghanistan: An Atlas of Indigenous Domestic Architecture by Albert Szabo, Thomas Jefferson Barfield.