Hooded Crow Starts a Cat Fight

I don't often dip into YouTube's waters for material for this blog, but I cannot resist. This post was sparked by something that appeared on NPR's blog: a video of a hooded crow snowboarding down a roof using a jar lid as a vehicle. The headline asked, "Could it Be? A Snowboarding Bird?"

Now, being a bit of a journalist myself, I know that a headline like that is a teaser, designed to incite conversation, and the blog is called "The Two-Way." But come on, people. How can you ask if it's possible that a hooded crow might play? Did we humans invent play? Or is it only for mammals? Any sentient animal can play for no other reason than fun. Birds are no different. Was the young peregrine I saw repeatedly capturing, dropping and recapturing a monarch butterfly planning to eat it? Gee--could it have been playing? A bird??

 Speaking of fun, here's a bird who knows how to manipulate the emotions of other animals for his fun.

So here is one very crafty hooded crow and a couple of very dumb cats.  Watching it, you can almost hear the crow saying, "Hey! He bit your tail! There! He did it again! I can't believe it! The noive!"

And I can definitely hear the crow laughing. I love love love this video, but then I have a bit of a bird bias. (and I think the cats will be fine, once they work out their differences). My dear Charlie used to strut, wings out, tail spread to its fullest, cackling maniacally, when (s)he was highly amused. Here's a post where she's playing, called Candy Wrapper Games.  Watching this crow video is like seeing sweet kooky Charlie again.

For those who wonder, hooded crows are found all across Europe and Russia. And Russian hooded crows may migrate west into Europe in winter.

Don't miss today's first post, Red-headed Woodpecker: The Saga Continues. I know. Two Zick posts in a day?? Never happens. But scroll down to find it. I just had to share this awesome hooded crow.