Roadside Birding: Dastardly Crow Attacks Pigeon
It’s the time of year when my passion for birding settles into the comfort of home, where I write about birds, watch birds at my feeders, read stories from world birders, and dream about (or plan!) fabulous trips to far-off lands where new birds can be spotted behind every twig and vine.
I may chase a few rarities this winter, I may head up to the lakeshore to scope out geese and ducks, but for the most part my day-to-day birding is that out my window or by the roadside.
Considering my bird feeders are about as popular as a Motel 6 in the middle of a northern Nebraskan highway, roadside birding is how I get most of my thrills.
Amazing things happen in nature when you’re whipping past at 55 miles per hour, like the time I saw a red fox stomp on a huge rodent. I think there’s an inverse relationship between speed and level of awesomeness, however: the more awesome the scene, the faster you’re likely to be going.
But I have repeatedly observed that birding imitates life, especially the part about “Life is not in the destination, it’s in the journey.” Have you ever noticed that the best bird sightings often happen fortuitously, on your way TO a birding site, rather than at the site itself?
Last winter, for example, in my hungry quest to spot as many owls as possible (Seven Owls, One New York Winter), I drove nearly an hour to an eerie, snow-blanketed swamp that harbors several species of owl. Though my friends and I walked deep into the wood on a icy, treacherous trail and scored a few hoots from two distant Barred Owls, the best birding that day occurred right at the trailhead by the parking lot. We received great looks at a variety of winter finches, including White-winged Crossbills and my first-of-season Common Redpolls.
Another time, when I worked in Ithaca, NY at Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the birding network was afire about the birding found at a certain spot on the western edge of Cayuga Lake. My husband and I got in the car, headed north along the western rim of the lake, and made a right-hand turn onto a perpendicular road en route to the location.
No sooner did we complete the turn when a Red-tailed Hawk swooped down into the roadside ditch – its sharp talons leading its fabulous wing spread – and POUNCE! It rose out of the ditch with a 3-foot snake dangling from its claws. The rest of the trip along the lake yielded almost no birds.
Roadside birding can be eventful, even awe-inspiring. The trick is being able to capture these fleeting events and grant them the awe they deserve!
Yesterday here in my little town, along Main Street in front of the grocery store, my family and I witnessed a powerful scene of avian aggression.
Columba livia, Rock Pigeon (this is not the same individual from the story)
As our car sauntered towards the marketplace, just ahead we saw an American Crow jump onto the back of a Rock Pigeon. The pigeon was pinned underneath the crow momentarily, then limped away with outstretched wing, obviously injured. The crow rose into the air, circled, then flew back to the pigeon and, in what seemed a very deliberate motion, pushed the pigeon into traffic and under a coming car!
By now we’d passed the scuffle and pulled into the parking lot. I turned back to witness the pigeon underneath the next car, hobbling its way across the street, dodging wheels and slumping muffler systems en route to the grassy curb. While the pigeon slowly poked its way, the crow circled a few times around the scene, then flew off.
As you know crows are intelligent creatures.
This crow was clearly victimizing the pigeon, but what for? Did it sense that the pigeon’s health was already compromised, so it moved in to finish job? Or did the crow want to turn this perfectly healthy pigeon into roadkill?
We have seen evidence that crows learn to use automobiles as nutcrackers: was this crow TRYING to drag the pigeon under a carwheel like he was a nut with a hard shell? Not to go all Nancy Grace on you, but was this attempted murder? Or a territorial squabble of some sort?
To answer these questions, we need a crow expert on the scene. So, let’s attempt to channel Kevin McGowan, behavioral ecologist and crow expert from Cornell, and see what happens. Oh, Kevin, where are you???? (insert Wayne & Garth-esque dream sequence).
Meanwhile, grant your stories of roadside birding the awe that they deserve by sharing in the comments, or link us to a story on your blog. : )
Over here we have a pedal in the middle, my kids think it’s called the bird because that’s what the cry is whenever it is pushed hard ‘BIRD’ we all cry as the car judders to a halt. OK the first few times you might feel a little embarrasment at the horns of vehicles behind you but its surprising how quickly one develops a thick skin; personally I like to think I’m giving opportunities for people to connect with wildlife they would otherwise miss.
“I like to think I’m giving opportunities for people to connect with wildlife they would otherwise miss.”
Generous of you, Alan! But what if the only bird they ever see is the one they’re flipping at you!? Haha : )
Any more roadside birding stories?
Laura,
Very cool observation. It seems you have two questions: why would a crow attack a pigeon, and would it use cars as the weapon of choice.
Question one is easy: the crow wanted to eat the pigeon! Crows are omnivores, which means they love meat but aren’t equipped to kill and process it (kind of like us). Meat is precious in the natural world, and even deer eat baby birds when they can (you can watch the videos). Crows eat mostly invertebrates, frogs, baby mice, and anything else they can subdue. Your pigeon must have been showing signs of weakness or other problems. A pigeon is normally too big for a crow to kill (they have lots of trouble with mice), but in the right circumstances crows are perfectly happy to kill a bird that large. Think shooting a moose for the winter. But, crows have only wimpy, wimpy tools for dispatching big prey. They have no talons and their bill is not sharp or particularly strong. I don’t wear gloves when handling adult crows, and the worst they can do is get me under a fingernail (which really hurts!). Otherwise, they can’t draw blood, which is wimpy in my bird book (even budgies can draw blood!).
So predation on a weak prey was the motive. How about the method? Did the crow actually try to use a car as a weapon? Probably not. Crows are, in fact, pretty smart, and I wouldn’t put it past an individual or two figuring out how to flush pigeons into traffic to get a meal, but most of this kind of “smart” behavior is just chance. The whole idea of crows dropping nuts in front of cars was shown, on close inspection by a careful scientist, to be just an illusion of intelligence. Not that it is not possible, but just seeing something that looks smart is not enough proof.
Just the other day I watched a crow working with a plastic container of tabbouleh (Ithaca, you know). The container was very tough and after what was probably an hour it had gotten a small hole poked in one corner. It quickly ate up all it could glean from the open space, but then it was faced with a visible bounty that was not reachable. What the bird did was jump on the edge and flip the container over, and then flip it over and over with its bill and eat the food that had fallen into the right corner. Score one for crow intelligence: it realized it had to shake the tabbouleh into the open corner. When I watched the first little video I had taken of it the crow seemed to be picking up the container in just the right places to dump the grain down to the hole. But, when I watched all the video I had taken and counted all of the moves the crow made, I realized that the bird was just picking up the container at random. It was smart enough to figure out that if it flipped the container over it would get food. But it had not (yet) figured out what the most efficient and effective moves were.
So, crows are in fact mid-level predators and happy to eat a pigeon. But, they’re probably not calculating enough to intentionally try to create their own roadkill. Maybe eventually… ;^)
Best,
Kevin
Kevin,
Thanks for your input on this post!
Would love to hear more about how the legend of crows dropping nuts into traffic was debunked as an illusion of intelligence. Your point about this possibly being a random occurrence is well taken, and possibly with enough time and resources, measurable. Maybe I should camp out at that roadside and see if that crow rules the (pigeon) roost there…
However, it seems if
a) the crow was preying upon a weak pigeon
b) crows are terrible at puncturing flesh and therefore killing their own prey
and
c) we saw a crow ride a pigeon’s back until it went into a busy street, when it had other directional options from which to choose (each less dangerous)
Then it seems we can’t totally rule out that this individual was trying to create its own roadkill. For example, how else might the crow have expected to access the flesh of the bird?
After the event, I went within 5-7 feet of the bird, and saw no open wounds that might serve as a tempting entry point.
But I get your point, the “illusion of intelligence does not always intelligence make.” Kinda like Fox News!
I’ve never noticed any signs, illusory or otherwise, of intelligence on Fox news.
Still, it is possible that the crow was just ‘enjoying’ pounding on that unfortunate pigeon and only afterwards noticed an oncoming car and decided to flee. My interpretation of the event in the moment, that it was a calculated murder attempt, was heavily informed by past stories about how smart crows are. It is very difficult for people NOT to anthropomorphize behavior. Like the old George Carlin line that dogs seem to show more emotion than cats because dogs have ‘eyebrows.’
This morning on my way to work I saw a crow fly in and ambush two pigeons while they were on the ground. It landed on one of them and held it on the ground. The second pigeon took off and circled the scene while the crow appeared to ‘pluck’ the trapped pigeon, pulling out a lot of feathers. At this point the pigeon was still desperately flapping it’s one lose wing. The crow then switched to strong downward strikes with it’s bill with the effect that the pigeon stopped flapping. A second crow landed but kept distant while the first released it’s grip on the pigeon but continued to peck. As I left, there was no sign that the crow had actually started to eat the pigeon but it certainly looked intent on doing so. I’ve seen Magpies take baby pigeons from a nest before, but never anything like this.
Ian, wow, that’s some scene! Thanks for sharing your story.
Hi,
I just watched a raven or crow (not sure which) chase a pigeon in flight. I stopped, and watched this ariel dog fight because I’d never seen a crow chasing another bird like that. The pigeon was in perfect health from what I could see and was darting around the building to avoid the crow.
The chase ended when the pigeon took a wrong turn and crashed into a window, then dropped onto a roof about 15ft below. The crow put on the air brakes, then pounced on the pigeon moments after it hit the roof. It proceeded to eat the pigeon, plucking feathers, and eventually tearing off parts of it.
The whole thing probably only took 20 seconds. I didn’t realize crows were so predatory…the pigeon sure didn’t look injured while he was being chased, so it didn’t look especially opportunistic (aside from pouncing after the pigeon hit the glass).
I can’t help but wonder if the crow intentionally chased the pigeon into the window…that might seem like a stretch, but who really knows….
/kevin