Go With the Crow
I've been photographing birds in and around Seattle for a few years, and for over a year now they have been my primary subject. So when I decided to start writing a photo blog I knew the first post would be about birds. But which family, genus or species to begin with? While the ducks, woodpeckers and hummingbirds I considered will certainly have their day, or days, here, I decide that for this inaugural post I would go with the crow.
American Crow, Corvus brachyrhnchos
Crows are a species of bird that virtually anyone can identify. They were certainly one of the first birds that I learned as I child in Vermont. Here in Seattle, as in other cities, crows are far more abundant than in any rural or wild area. I have enjoyed regular opportunities to observe these famously intelligent, and notoriously raucous, corvids.
There's a broad spectrum of human feelings towards crows, and I've always been well on the side of those who love them. But in spite of how beautiful and interesting I find them, as a wildlife photographer I have been somewhat guilty of taking crows for granted. It's not that I haven't photographed them at all. In fact two of my portfolio images are crow photographs. But when I go out looking for birds to photograph I'm not looking for crows, because I don't have to look for them to find them.
Many of the birds I photograph offer only fleeting, unpredictable glimpses of their activities. But crows are living out their daily lives in plain sight. This provides regular opportunities to document various aspects of their behavior. Not only that, but I don't even have to leave my neighborhood to do so. After having this realization I got excited about compensating for my previous oversight. After musing on this for a little while I recently decided to get started on my neighborhood crow project.
As the month of October progressed leaves weren't the only thing falling from the trees in my neighborhood. Acorns and walnuts started hitting the ground too, and the local wildlife was immediately all over the bonanza. One day I was home watching crows fly high over the street. They had nuts in their bills which they dropped onto the pavement to crack their shells. It wasn't raining and the light was ok, so decided to try and photograph this behavior. This turned out to be a tricky thing to capture! I haven't managed to get that shot yet, but I did photographing some crows enjoying the fruits of their efforts.
This crow is collecting a walnut that it cracked by dropping it in flight onto the pavement forty feet below.
When I watched this crow fly up from the street with a walnut I hoped to capture it dropping the nut in flight. Instead it alighted by the top of this utility pole and placed the nut into a cavity. At first I though the crow was caching the walnut, but she kept her bill in the cavity and made jabbing motions into it. I realized the nut had already been cracked. She was using the cavity to stabilize the nut while she pecked bites of meat from within the opened shell.
Oops! This crow isn't dropping it's walnut in a clever attempt to break it on the pavement. He flew into this sycamore with the nut to keep it away from other crows, but he almost immediately dropped it. A good deal of work has gone in to getting this nut ready for cracking. The thick, tough outer part of the walnut fruit has to be removed in order to expose the shell encasing the nut within. This guy swooped down with the quickness after he his dropped prize, and was able to retrieve it before any of the other crows around made it their own.
Nut meat isn't the only kind that crows eat. While they can't take much prey, aside from small invertebrates and helpless song bird nestlings, they will gladly eat any animal flesh that's made available in other ways. One recent evening I stepped out to enjoy the last hour of daylight in my neighborhood. Knowing this is a time of high activity for birds I brought my camera with me in case I saw something interesting. In a park only one block from my apartment I came across a crow eating a piece of fresh, red meat in a small cherry tree. There was no carcass in sight, so I had no idea what the crow was eating. But after taking a few shots of the crow feeding I moved on and discovered the source of its meal.
A neighborhood crow uses its bill and feet to tear bites from a piece of unidentified meat.
The meat source revealed: apparently this eastern gray squirrel was ran over by car. A group of crows gathered around and took turns grabbing their share of the valuable protein.
One crow was ineffectively tugging at the dead squirrel's furry hide.
"Step aside, youngster. I'll show you how it's done. Our bills and claws can't cut through that hide, but luckily the car opened the carcass for us."
There was a surprising lack of aggression between the crows at the road kill. I suspect this is at least partially due to these birds being well fed. The city provides a cornucopia for these inquisitive omnivores. But crows aren't always so willing to share, and at times are intolerant of each other. I have observed crows lashing out at each other, but generally this doesn't go beyond a short chase. However I did recently observe a full on fight between two crows, with one being the aggressor and the other the victim.
When this crow alighted here I saw a nice photo opportunity with the fall foliage brightening the scene. The crow was having trouble steadying itself though, and after struggling briefly it swooped down to the ground directly below.
As I followed the bird with my lens I realized it had landed on another crow.
Two other crows stood silently to the side, one with a morsel in its bill, and watched as the bully effectively pinned his victim to the ground.
But the victim was no weakling, and was able to push its attacker off.
The bully flew up a bit, perhaps relenting, perhaps preparing for another attack.
Either way the victim took the opportunity to quickly fly away. Meanwhile that one bystander still had that bite of whatever it was secured in its bill.
Because city crows are highly conspicuous and tolerant of human presence they provide urban naturalists with regular opportunities to observe the daily dramas that make up their struggle to survive. They also afford wildlife photographers like myself ample opportunities to practice our craft right outside our door. I will continue to seek out the more elusive creatures of Seattle's wooded parks, and venture into wilder places when I am able. But if you follow my work this won't be the last you see of my neighborhood crows.