Hi Tweeeters,

?We have been enjoying the birds at Deer Harbor.?Yesterday on one of
our feeders at one time there were the following birds:

RED BREASTED NUTHATCH
RED-CROSS BILLS (male and female)
AMERICAN GOLD FINCH (male and female)
CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICADEES
PINE SISKINS
HOUSE FINCHES (male and female)
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER (on the suet)

And in a Madrone above watching were a flock of BAND-TAILED PIGEONS and
several AMERICAN (NORTHWESTERN) CROWS.

The crows on Orcas and in Seattle have been exhibiting a behavior that
we have only recently observed.?It looks like the equivalent of the
?spy-hopping? behavior for which Orcas are famous, except of course
this is aerial ?spy hopping?.?

The crows we observed at different locations and different times fly
vertically into the air until they are several meters above the trees
and then glide downward at a steep angle until they are about mid-tree
level where they again fly upwards vertically and repeat the downward
glide completing an approximation of a figure 8.?They do this behavior
several times consecutively.

?Several birds may do this in unison or single birds do this behavior
while others sit in nearby branches watching.?Since many crows are
nesting right now, we wonder if this has something to do with breeding
behavior or nest protection, although no nests were obvious where this
behavior was taking place.?ANY IDEAS?

Don and Sandi McVay
Seattle
dmcvay at cmc.net