Nice to see there a couple of other reports.

Some very simple research shows this behavior is reported for other
crows but I've not found a reference to American Crows doing it.

BNA says that Northwestern Crows "uses bill to pick food off water
surface near shore by hovering over water".

"The American Crow and the Common Raven" By Lawrence Kilham mentions
Hooded Crows (a Northern European species) hover over water (but for
fish).

Fish Crows do it according to "The behavior of Texas birds" By
Michael K. Rylander.

Audubon.org describes it for Fish Crows too

http://www.audubon.org/bird/boa/F18_G1c.html

So there is an interesting commonality: crows that fish.

Given it seems to be a "fishing" crow behavior perhaps this is a
trait of Northwestern Crow x American Crows intergrades or just
learned behavior by Seattle American Crows? It might be interesting
to see if they vocalize after doing it. The ones I saw were silent.


On Jun 3, 2009, at 1:31 PM, mawilloughby1 wrote:

> Hi-
> I live on Eastlake and have been the watching crows do the exact
> same thing
> over the past couple of weeks. I have only see a single crow doing
> this -
> not several in a flock. I wonder if this may be a supplemental way
> to find
> extra food for young. I have a pair nesting in a tree next to my
> building.
>
> They are really good scavengers. Let us know if you hear from
> anyone about
> it.
>
> Melissa Willoughby
> Seattle
> mawilloughby * comcast * net
>
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> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
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--
Kevin Purcell
kevinpurcell at pobox.com