Tweeters:

Yesterday I approached an American Crow in the backyard, realised it was
young (it had a gape and couldn't fly well) and was almost immediately
verbally abused by the presumed parent in a nearby ornamental cherry tree.
The adult crow cawed incessently and then began snipping leaves one at a
time from the tree. It would caw, then quickly snip two or three leaves
from the branch it was standing on, then repeat the behavior. Eventually
both birds flew off and I checked out the leaves. It appeared they had
been cleanly cut at the base, not simply knocked off. Can anyone give me
more information on this behavior? Was the bird trying to create a
diversion? Thanks!

Nate Sutter
Seattle, Wa
nsutter at fred.fhcrc.org