Wildlife April 2011

[Maggi Young]

We've seen crows soaking their bread here, too.  Luckily no-one locally is feeding them bread now, so that has stopped.
Just as well.... Lily will eat anything! For a small white dog, Lily has no fear of large white birds and will wade into the river to try to steal bread from the swans being fed  bread by children.  That's after she has made a direct raid on the children!

[Lori S.]

Strange behavior of carrion crows
Some crows living here around (and unfortunately fed by a lady in the neighbourhood) started to soak old and hard white bread in the water of my bird bath.
Of course I admire their ingenuity but nevertheless I stopped the mess by covering the bath with mesh wire.
Don't know if smaller birds are able to drink now.
Is this a unique behavior or does it occur elsewhere also?
Gerd

Our American Crows like to soak their food too... bread is one thing but worse yet is find tasty bits of carrion (e.g. the disembodied head of a robin, discarded chicken bones) in the birdbath! 

[Gerdk]

I see - the crows here are doing nothing special!

Hope the feeding neighbour will not offer them roast chicken.

Gerd

[jomowi]

Crows are very intelligent: We used to hang suet tied to a long piece of string from our birch tree so that the crows could not get at it.  They soon worked out that if they stood on the branch to which the string was tied they could haul it up section at a time, then stand on it before reaching for the next section until it was fully raised.  Have also seen a crow fumigating itself on a smoking chimney pot.  Pity the occupant in the room below!