It’s a ROCK …

It’s a ROCK …

It’s fledgling season along the Front Range, and we’ve seen a lot of young birds making their first foray’s into the world. One group that particularly caught my eye was a family of five American Crows. I’ve heard them overhead, and in trees, begging for food as mom tries to wean them.

This week, though, I saw a different kind of encounter. It was between two juveniles, whom I assume are siblings. And it looked like they were teasing each other, playing keep away. And for the second time in two weeks, I’ve found myself thinking We’re not supposed to attribute human emotions or experiences to animals — that’s called anthropomorphism. But in this case, it’s the simplest answer. In fact, it’s the only answer I can think of for what these two crows were doing.

It all started with a rock …

Two crows on a suburban street sidewalk. There is a bed of cobbles -- gravel to the left of the birds, some of which has spilled onto the sidewalk and into the gutter. There is a puddle of water in the gutter, which one of the crows is investigating.

Two juvenile crows are foraging in the gutter puddle.

Now the other crow has joined the first in the gutter, and has its body tilted towards the puddle to investigate.

One of them found something, so the other came over to investigate.

Both crows are still in the gutter, but one of the crows has found a rock, which it is holding in its beak, with its head tilted back. If this were a human, you'd say the bird was flaunting the rock. You can see a little pink in the mouth of the crow with the rock -- this means it is a juvenile. The other crow looks on.

“Look what I found! It’s rock! A ROCK!”

It’s a good looking rock. And the crow on the right has it. And the crow on the left doesn’t.

The second crow has walked up to the crow with the rock, who is hopping away.

“Let me see it!”

“No!”

The crow without a rock has turned back to the puddle. The crow with the rock watches.

“Fine. If you’re not going to share, I’ll find my own rock.”

The rock-less crow eyes its choices of rocks in the puddle. The crow with a rock looks on, watching it's sibling carefully.

“These don’t look as good.”

The crow at the puddle tries out a few rocks. The other crow paces behind it, with the rock still in its beak.

“Not that one … or that one …”

The rock-less crow has turned around to look at the other crow, and its rock. If this was a human, you'd say, the rock-less crow was coveting the other bird's bauble.

“You’ve got the best rock. C’mon! Let me see it.”

The rock-less crow advances on the one with the rock still in its beak. It hops away.

“I don’t have to share if I don’t want to!”

There is a flurry of wings and beaks over the rock.

“Share!”

“No!”

The rock-less crow lunges for the bird with the rock. he rock-less bird's beak is open and we can see that it's mouth is red too. The other bird has its back to us as it leaps into the air.

“I want to see it!

“NO!”

... and they're done. The bird with the rock has, so far as I could see, kept it the whole time. The other bird had an entire bed of rocks to chose from, but it wanted THAT ROCK. It didn't get it.

“Fine. If you won’t let me see your stupid rock, I’ll just leave.”

Both crows walk to the left of the photo, past the yards of gravel. The victorious crow still has the rock in its beak.

“But wait … don’t you want to see it? I’ll let you see it …”

Tell me that’s not what was going on.

Amy Law

One response to “It’s a ROCK …”

  1. sopantooth Avatar
    sopantooth

    Wonderful

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