[EBB Sightings] American Crow Leapfrogging Canada Goose

If do a search on youtube for crows you should be able to find a video on there from Japan that shows crows dropping nuts into traffic and retrieving them when the light turns red.

Dominik Mosur
San Francisco

--- On Mon, 4/6/09, Hilary Powers  wrote:

> From: Hilary Powers 
> Subject: Re: [EBB Sightings] American Crow Leapfrogging Canada Goose
> To: "ebbsightings" 
> Date: Monday, April 6, 2009, 1:59 PM
> Gulls do the shell-drop thing all the time.... But if the
> crows are timing their walnut-release to take advantage of
> your car as a nutcracker, that's a whole new realm of
> avian expertise....
> 
> Re Tom Condit's
> >> Gulls use this technique to crack clam and mussel
> shells all the
> >> time. That's why you'll find fragments of
> shell lying around on
> >> pavement (sidewalks, golf cart paths, etc.) near
> coastal waters.
> 
> Bob Hislop wrote:
> > Thanks!  I wasn't aware of that being a common
> behaviour.
> >
> 
> (earlier message:
> >>> I haven't observed this kind of behavior,
> however I have observed
> >>> a fairly creative behavior in (at least) one
> individual involving
> >>> cracking walnuts. We have a walnut tree in our
> back yard, and
> >>> every year a crow will come by, pick up a
> walnut off the ground,
> >>> then fly it over the house and land on a power
> line over the
> >>> street. After resting for a few moments on the
> line the crow will
> >>> then fly upward (gaining altitude) and drop
> the walnut on the street (trying to crack the shell). I have
> observed this creative
> >>>  behavior several times, especially as I'm
> backing my car out of
> >>> the driveway; and I'm wondering if this
> intelligent bird is
> >>> timing this behavior so as to allow my car to
> run over and crack
> >>> the nut!!  I can't imagine any other bird
> species being this
> >>> creative.
> 
> -- - Hilary Powers - hilary at powersedit.com - Oakland CA -
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