Do crows catch fish?

[shirl]

A few days ago we stayed in Shropshire and walking along by the River Severn we saw what we thought was a crow which hovered inelegantly over the water and picked something out - looked like a fish. We were quite a distance away so couldn't get a shot of it, but the bird flew into a tree and a few minutes later settled on the bank - heavily cropped piccie but you might be able to at least say if it was a crow.


Shirl

[Adam Cheeseman]

Originally Posted by shirl

A few days ago we stayed in Shropshire and walking along by the River Severn we saw what we thought was a crow, dive into the water and pick something out - looked like a fish.
heavily cropped piccie but you might be able to at least say if it was a crow.
Shirl

Yes, that's a Carrion Crow. Crows are opportunists and will take advantage of any possible meal given half a chance. Mainly scavengers, they will prey on live creatures and I suppose this crow may have learnt that there are easy pickings to be had in shallow water. They are very intelligent birds after all.

Cheers,

Adam

[Tam]

looks like a carrion crow to me,the fish it picked up was most likely already dead and floating on top of the water.

[LoveT]

Well, you live and learn ! I knew crows etc. are scavengers, but I didn't think they'd be prepared to get their feet wet for a meal .

I'll have to keep my eyes open, and observe these birds more closely in future!

Thea

[Ukwildlifeo]

Ive seen magpies take newts from my pond, so it might have been a newt, or a slow fish

[shirl]

Thanks all, I suspect the most likely is a dead fish floating on the surface, pretty good to watch though.

Shirl

[solus]

Oh yes, Crows do catch fish!

A good number of years ago our then neighbours dug a pond at the back of their garden and stocked it with goldfish. Some time later he re-stocked it after nearly all the fish had disappeared - he looked quite puzzled when he returned home just couple of days later to find they'd all gone... again!

As we didn't get on with these people I wasn't going to enlighten him - but I spent a very entertaining time watching from one of our bedroom windows as a Carrion Crow made repeated visits to the garden, landing on the lawn, approaching the edge of the pond and watching until a fish was close to the edge just below the surface, when it darted its head in and grabbed it. Next thing there was a "flying fish" having an aerial few of the next few gardens as it was taken to the nest to feed Crow Juniors in a tall tree further down the road!

Sadly, another neighbour must have also seen what was happening and told the chap as the pond was soon covered with netting, thus ending the Crow's source of fish and my fun!

[Goatboy]

The resident crows down at our local retail park have really taken a liking to chips dropped outside the KFC.

Fish and chips then?

They seem to be really adapting well to our fast-food culture.

[seamusagleann]

whatched crows on the sea shore getting mussells and flying upwards and dropping them on the rocks to break them. once i remember crows dropping them on the road to get the cars to break them .....clever birds crows

[shirl]

Well, lloks like they really do eat fish amongst other things, always quite a surprise though when you see something like that that you normally wouldn't expect, we don't seem to get many crows where we live in Derbys, jackdaws are common and a pain as they can trash every item of bird food within minutes working as a team.

Shirl