A late reply, but I wanted to second the notion that a 'copulation' event
is not always about mating... as always, we shouldn't assume too
much about the world of birds. Also remember that pairs of
crows can have 'helpers' at their nest, so maybe this third crow was a
potential helper -then again, maybe not after getting slammed ;)

-John
Seattle


On Fri, 14 Apr 2000 sanjer at televar.com wrote:

> Is it possible that the third crow was not a female but in fact a male and the
> dominate male was flexing his muscles and making the subordinate male be
> submissive. Ya know..like "don't get any ideas" this is MY mate!!!
>
> Don't Alpha male wolves do this sort of thing?
>
> But then what do I know I don't have no degree in nuttin'. :-)
>
> Jerry and Sandy Converse
> Grand Coulee, WA
> mailto:sanjer at televar.com
> http://ConverseCorner.com
>
> MBlanchrd at aol.com wrote:
>
> > Hi, Tweeters,
> >