The pair of crows on our street has been late building its nest. After a lot of territorial fights with their neighbours, they only started last week, on top of a lime tree, but the nest looks like it is now finished. One of the pair was sitting on the nest this afternoon, and kept calling softly, made me think of the way rooks caw. The other flew to the roof nearby carrying something floppy. I thought it would be a strip of bark, which they often use as lining material, but when the crow started pecking it hard and lifted it I saw it was a frog. The crow on the nest - presumably the female- was obviously very excited about this, flew close and started flapping her wings, calling pleadingly, while the first crow fed. I couldn't see if the frog changed hands (claws?) but in crows females incubate the eggs and the male is in charge of feeding her so it wouldn't surprise me if she also had frog for dinner.
The male feeds on the frog
The pleading crow
Very well spotted Africa. We seem to have a great many pairs of Crow here but they are outnumbered by the Magpie.
ReplyDeleteThank you Toffeeapple. It was pure luck that the frog is recognisable as such in just one of the shots I took, as most of the time the crow had it under its foot while it was eating.
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