Crows at Lunch

Crows are such intelligent creatures - social, independent, opportunistic, omnivorous - rather like us. I love observing their behavior.

I saw two interesting crow behaviors today, as  I walked to a small deli to pick up a lunchtime sandwich near where I work (on Lake Washington Boulevard NE in Kirkland, Washington). Today is sunny and dry, perfect autumn weather for a lunchtime stroll.

Behavior 1: Caching food.

A crow landed on the autumn-leaf-strewn lawn next to the sidewalk where I was walking. He had something in his beak and it looked like a chicken bone (small, like from the wing, and mostly bare, but with tiny bits of meat on it). Not too amazing so far.

After I had "safely" passed, the crow set the bone on the grass and began to carefully cover it with leaves! And when the crow was finished to its satisfaction, it flew away! After I was sure the crow was out of site, I filmed his cache. The leaves in the center of the photo are where the crow hid the food. I'm not too sure this crow is going to find the goods after the first stiff breeze. ;D That's assuming it can remember where it stashed this tidbit.

Behavior 2: Picking fruit from a tree and eating it

Approaching the deli, I saw many crows in trees (some trees were bare of leaves and others were in full color). One in particular was sitting on a bare branch, with a red ball of something in its claw, eating it. That one flew away before I could grab my camera. 

So I continued to observe this batch of crows and finally spotted crows grabbing small round reddish fruit from a tree in full color and full of fruit, and flying off to eat it. 

 I pulled out my camera and was rewarded with a crow who maneuvered in the tree, pulled off a fruit (you have to look carefully in the video), and promptly flew away to eat it.

The mystery fruit: