The Rattling Crow: City scavengers

We humans can make a mess. Bins left open or toppled over, the remains of takeaways eaten on the street thrown to the pavement. It is not a pretty sight, but it means extra feeding opportunities for some. Birds take advantage of their surroundings: they eat the berries, buds, and flowers of the trees we plant in our gardens, they do reward our love for them feeding on delicacies on the bird table, but they will also eat our rubbish. Today, a Carrion Crow (top shot) searched for tidbits under a rubbish bag using that lovely crow technique of delicately picking 'things' and moving them aside. They do the same when feeding on leaf litter, and it is quite different to the energetic, almost full body technique for the same effect used by Blackbirds. The Carrion Crows and Blackbirds often feed at the back of a row of flats, where bins are often left open and bin bags on the ground. My favourite sighting of a scavenging crow was one strutting on a pavement with a large sausage held across its bill, a pity I was driving at the time! Seagulls are supreme city scavengers too, with their bouncy, manoeuvrable flight, Black-headed Gulls are able to avoid the passing traffic - as they will avoid waves out at sea - to deftly dip in the middle of the road to pick items from in between cars.