Bird Behaviour

[Brigitte]

Is this common Raven behaviour, washing the nesting material? The bird would drop the material into the water, poke around at it, lift it out, drop it again and repeat the process a couple of time before flying off with it. The process was then repeated with another new lot of bark. I can only assume it was softening the fibers before using them in the nest. Any other ideas? The image was taken through double glazed glass so is not very good.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51297737013_56e4ea721c_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2ma1j2B)Washing Nesting Material (https://flic.kr/p/2ma1j2B) by Brigitte D (https://www.flickr.com/photos/181699767@N07/), on Flickr

[ameerat42]

Drown bugs? :confused013 - Or worse: watching too much TV :eek:
- Cute, though.

[Mary Anne]

Sorry No idea, though Thanks for Sharing :th3:

[Lance B]

Interesting behaviour! They say that Ravens and Crows are some of the very smartest of birds and can solve rather complex tasks put to them.

https://www.nathab.com/blog/crows-are-as-intelligent-as-a-seven-year-old-child/

[Mark L]

G'day Brigitte.
Given your location that would be an Australian Raven and one of me books says "Builds a large, rough bowl of sticks lined with soft grass, wool and fir."
Given the months they breed are July to October I think nest making is what's happening. I guess wetting the material makes it easier to mold into the nest.
Cheers.

[feathers]

Softening them would allow the bird to put more pressure on them to handle in flight, as well as not blowing so easily away :nod:when constructing the nest l suppose? I've seen crows soak bread before flying away with it too. Clever little critters:nod:

[Oakley]

Made me smile Brigitte and a top image :th3::th3: well captured