I work at the UW Medical Center. I see this behavior every year by the local American Crows fishing in the Montlake Cut. I always assumed that they were retreiving dead fingerlings from the release of the fingerling salmon from the UW hatchery. There are often up to 10 crows participating for three or four days. I haven't paid attention if this occurs more than once a year--I don't think that it does, but it made a major impression when I first realized what they were doing.

Christine Southwick
N Seattle/Shoreline



On Thu, 4 Jun 2009, Kevin Purcell wrote:

> 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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> --
> Kevin Purcell
> kevinpurcell at pobox.com
>
>
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