I was out and about for the Sunday morning shopping when these guys asked if I had any spare trash.
These two were near my car when I got out. There were four more picking over what had fallen out of a trash receptacle or been left on the ground in the parking lot. They were LARGE birds.
These two were strutting around like they were line dancing and you can see that they were displaying the ruff of feathers under their chin. I’m no expert, but I’m thinking it was a mating display of some sort.
Given their size, the chin ruff, and those honkin’ huge beaks, these have to be ravens. I see a pair up in the trees behind our house, but they rarely come down to the ground, so I don’t always remember just how big they are.
Lovely birds! Beautiful! I think they’re spectacular.
Just don’t piss them off. They can recoginze and remember individual humans, they’re very intelligent (they can use tools, i.e., sticks to get bugs out from holes, problem solve like dropping stones into a vase to raise the water level to where they can drink, etc), they carry a grudge, and there’s some evidence that they can even pass that information on to others in their flock.
Hitchcock knew what he was talking about.
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 