At the nursery a crow uses both the top of a tall poplar tree and a Norfolk Island pine tree to survey its territory. Occasionally it will fly off to an equally tall distant Gum tree with a couple of Magpies in hot pursuit but it is never deterred by their efforts of intimidation. The reason it has taken up residence in the neighbourhood seems to be that it has formed a special bond with a local black tom cat. Edgar Alan Poe could not have come up with a better companion. The crow will land on a fence while the cat rolls around on the ground in front of it. Then they take it in turns to jump about and tease each other. If only I could get close enough to record the action on film or video. Did they form a bond over a shared food bowl as crows are known to be intelligent enough to find something tasty and remember the place where it may appear again. There is an interesting article about the ability they have to remember faces and details on the Birds in Backyards website (see link below) Last year on a bushwalk I came across a so called Parliament of crows where a large number of them gather together to hold a "meeting" to caw a lot about what is going on. Fascinating to know what that is all about.
A couple of well known song birds have had their crow moments in the past, namely Joni Mitchell and Madonna.
Joni Mitchell as crow on Hejira (1976)
photograph by Norman Seaf and Joel Bernstein
Madonna from music video Frozen
from Ray of Light (1998)
Warner Brothers Records and Maverick Records
I think their eyes are quite evil looking. But would be great to see a video of a crow and cat interacting like that!
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