A Murder of Crows (or by...) - Denver County
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chrisblakeslee
May 2, 2015, 1:21:27 PM5/2/15
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Dear COBIRDS,
Yesterday afternoon Lynn Willcockson e-mailed me the following:
"About 20 minutes ago I witnessed a Crow attack a Grackle and kill it. The Grackle was hopping around on the ground and the Crow flew down on top of it. There was a struggle but the Crow won. After the Crow flew off I checked and the Grackle was still breathing but not able to move."
“I have never seen this sort of behavior before or even heard of it - have you??” Lynn
Has anyone had any similar experiences?
Thanks, Chris
P.S. Lynn added, some people have said to me — "Can I borrow your Crow to take care of the Grackles in my yard?" :-)
Jennifer Hallam
May 2, 2015, 1:37:27 PM5/2/15
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I can tell you that I saw a somewhat similar situation involving a Common Raven and an American Robin's nest. The raven was huge and he landed in a spruce where I know there is an active robin's nest and preceded to raid the nest, flying off with parts of the nest and clumps of something else which I'm hoping weren't the chicks. He came back 3 times and each time left with stuff in his beak. The robins were chasing him and scolding him each time but this raven didn't care and he was bigger than my toy poodle! The whole situation made me so angry but I guess it's the circle of life?
Jennifer Hallam
Ken Caryl, CO
Jennifer Hallam
Ken Caryl, CO
Charles Hundertmark
May 2, 2015, 1:53:17 PM5/2/15
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Early last month at the Moose Visitor Center (Jackson Co), as I was watching the feeders, a crow flew down to attack a small mammal, possibly a vole. The crow repeatedly jabbed at the mammal, picking it up and dropping it. The vole attempted to scramble away, but was apparently maimed by the initial thrust. The crow repeated the attacks multiple times and finally flew off with the critter.
Chuck
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Kay Niyo
May 2, 2015, 5:17:56 PM5/2/15
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I watched a crow in IA raid a robin’s nest repeatedly and fly off each time (4 times) with a nestling, probably to feed its own nestlings. Poor robin parents harassed the crow each time, but not much they could do. That was the end of that nesting effort. Presumably they started over. Common behavior for corvids.
Kay
Kayleen A. Niyo, Ph.D.
Niyo Scientific Communications
5651 Garnet St.
Golden, CO 80403
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DAVID A LEATHERMAN
May 2, 2015, 7:55:20 PM5/2/15
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Lynn, Chris, et al,
The incident described to Chris by Lynn does not sound like simple predation to me. The crow did not make off with the grackle and didn't even kill it, at least not immediately. My guess would be that this crow has some experience or instinct about grackles being egg predators that during the crow's nesting season triggered the observed agonistic behavior. Maybe the grackle just had the misfortune of unknowingly flying within the crow's nesting territory. Maybe it was a more targeted act on the part of the crow against a species in the grackle commonly known by most birds to be a cold-blooded carnivore. I just think the fact the crow didn't do anything after the assault identifies this action as something OTHER THAN simple predation on weaker birds (but which is certainly also worthy of notation).
We will never know for sure what happened here, but I appreciate Lynn bringing this interesting behavior to our attention. There is a great column by Pete Dunne in the current issue of Cornell Lab's "Living Bird" about listing, which includes the listing of moments such as the one Lynn describes.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
From: cob...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [cobirds] A Murder of Crows (or by...) - Denver County
Date: Sat, 2 May 2015 11:21:20 -0600
To: cob...@googlegroups.com
The incident described to Chris by Lynn does not sound like simple predation to me. The crow did not make off with the grackle and didn't even kill it, at least not immediately. My guess would be that this crow has some experience or instinct about grackles being egg predators that during the crow's nesting season triggered the observed agonistic behavior. Maybe the grackle just had the misfortune of unknowingly flying within the crow's nesting territory. Maybe it was a more targeted act on the part of the crow against a species in the grackle commonly known by most birds to be a cold-blooded carnivore. I just think the fact the crow didn't do anything after the assault identifies this action as something OTHER THAN simple predation on weaker birds (but which is certainly also worthy of notation).
We will never know for sure what happened here, but I appreciate Lynn bringing this interesting behavior to our attention. There is a great column by Pete Dunne in the current issue of Cornell Lab's "Living Bird" about listing, which includes the listing of moments such as the one Lynn describes.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
From: cob...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [cobirds] A Murder of Crows (or by...) - Denver County
Date: Sat, 2 May 2015 11:21:20 -0600
To: cob...@googlegroups.com
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