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Articles

Vol. 5 No. 3 (1974)

NOTES: DO CROWS USE AUTOMOBILES AS NUTCRACKERS?

Submitted
August 19, 2025
Published
July 1, 1974

Abstract

While driving through the University of California, Davis, campus one morning, I spotted a Common Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) hovering over the street ahead of me. The bird flew to the street and dropped a walnut. At the approach of several automobiles the crow flew up into the air. Four or five autos passed over the spot, while the crow circled some twenty-five feet above the street. After passing over the spot, I watched in my rearview mirror, noticing that the crow returned to the street (and, presumably, the walnut) after a final car had passed by. The walnut appeared to be intact, although I was by then a bit far-removed to tell if it had fragmented at the impact of the automobiles. I was, unfortunately, unable to return to the scene for a closer look.

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