>I can confirm that they're super hunters. We've lost three two to three
>day old ducklings to crows this year. They swoop down with talons
>extended, grab the duckling on the wing and off they go.
>
>I'd never seen this behavior in a crow before but somehow, with their
>intelligence, it doesn't surprise me.
>
>Peggi

The really interesting thing about this posting to me is that the crows
used their feet rather than their bill to grab the ducklings. There's been
a lot of discussion over the years about bill vs. foot use in nonraptorial
birds. It's been debated whether shrikes, which were the subject earlier,
used both bill and feet to capture and/or hold prey, and the discussion has
centered on just which kinds of birds can hold objects with their feet, as
opposed to merely using them for perching and locomotion.

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