Don wrote:

>I vaguely remember a short thread about crows using their feet
>to carry things recently in tweeters.

There was a thread about Northern Shrikes doing this, but I don't recall
anything about crows.

About the raven predation--I wouldn't put anything past birds as
intelligent as our friends of the genus _Corvus_. It probably doesn't take
much to extend predation on nestlings and fledglings to predation on
adults, when it can be accomplished. Since Brewer's Blackbirds are fierce
and constant mobbers of birds such as ravens, maybe the raven was able to
pluck one out of the air when it dove at it. Ravens, like hawks, readily
turn over on their back when another bird dives on them from above.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416