Crows on top of other birds

[Kentuckienne]

Pictures of crows on top of other birds.
Crows atop other birds / Boing Boing

 

[GaleriaGila]

Now THIS is a meme worth meming!

 

[texsize]

Crows go after (attack) birds of pray. I don't know for sure but I think it's because of there fledglings.

Crow fledglings leave the nest before they are really ready to fly (ref. A Murder of Crows by PBS). Because of this they are vulnerable to predator birds. Whenever these birds of prey stray into nesting areas of the crows the crows try to chase them away.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Crows are basically the MS13 gangstas of the bird world.

 

[Kentuckienne]

I once witnessed the true pecking order of the wild in a mudflat in Seattle.

Seagull finds dead fish in the mud, starts eating as fast as it can,

Bald eagle swoops in, gets nice white tail feathers all muddy, steals rotting fish from seagull.

Eagle flaps over to nearby rock to eat the fish.

Crow immediately begins attacking eagle: flying into his back, pecking, flying away quickly before coming back. Eagle actually looses a feather or two but keeps eating.

Eagle finished fish, launches into the air.

Crow vanishes just in time, so eagle flaps off toward nest.

Fearless!

 

[SailBoat]

Looking at this from the Physics of Flight - note the lift that they are getting riding just behind the larger bird's leading edge of it's Wings. The velocity would greatly reduce the effort they would need to fly. Like a near free ride.

 

[Scott]

Looking at this from the Physics of Flight - note the lift that they are getting riding just behind the larger bird's leading edge of it's Wings. The velocity would greatly reduce the effort they would need to fly. Like a near free ride.

Oh yes, birds that formation-fly know this well! Some of the first human efforts at flight attempted to mimic bird-wing contouring and in at least one spectacular flop actual flapping motion!

One of the reasons airliners have sprouted "winglets" or "sails" at the wing tips is to harness the wasted horizontal energy. Translates into meaningful fuel efficiency sufficient to retrofit on existing airframes.

 

[Kentuckienne]

I saw a documentary about birds...I have a dvd of it somewhere, I think...they used a camera on a light flying craft to film geese in flight, and you could see the geese get bounced out of formation if they drifted out of the flow. There was a turbulence, I forget how they illustrated it, and as long as the geese stayed in that level V, they were almost pulled along in a slipstream. But as soon as the lead goose got tired, it would drift out of point, get buffeted around a bit, then slip back into place behind the new leader. There was a brief wobble as the V reformed for all the geese in the formation. If a goose got more out of place, it was almost ejected from the V. It was fascinating.

 

[Birdman666]

Crows go after (attack) birds of pray. I don't know for sure but I think it's because of there fledglings.

Crow fledglings leave the nest before they are really ready to fly (ref. A Murder of Crows by PBS). Because of this they are vulnerable to predator birds. Whenever these birds of prey stray into nesting areas of the crows the crows try to chase them away.

Years ago, my birds were freaking out, and there was absolutely no calming them down. I really didn't get what had gotten into them.

Then I left the apartment, and started out the door and I saw it. There was an airial combat going on. Red Tailed Hawks vs. the Crows. The hawks were raiding the nests, and the crows were trying to defend. Chicks were getting picked off and carried off and screaming... AND MY FLOCK COULD HEAR ALL OF IT... and instinctively knew.

I of course, could not.

 

[Birdman666]

My poor Sally got a taste of crows massing and attacking one day, when I used to Free Fly her.

We were at the park in Berkeley. And she flew too close to the Crow's nesting area. The entire freakin flock went after her.

I ended up having to climb a 50 foot tree, because she landed in the top of it, got way back in a tangle of branches, and wasn't coming out for anything or anybody!