Crows vs rabbits

[Sergeant Pluck]

Wandering around Richmond Park yesterday, near Two Storm Wood north of Sawyer's Hill, where the rabbits hang out, I noticed something that I've never seen before. There were a lot of what looked like juvenile carrion crows around (as is the case all over the park, not just the rabbit-y bits), and I saw several of them pecking at grazing rabbits. Sometimes quite sneakily: a rabbit might be munching contentedly in the shade of a fence post, let's say, and a crow wanders around the back of the post and gives the rabbit a good peck on the arse. Rabbit hops off a little bit. Crow follows, gets in a peck. It didn't seem to bother the rabbits too much, for their burrow entrances were nearby and they didn't feel the need to hide.

Are the crows feeling out if they could kill a full-grown rabbit? 

[Andrij]

The wabbits only worry when a crow turns up with a spear and magic helmet.

[Wowbagger]

I saw two incidents of crows and pheasants in some form of conflict/disagreement over the weekend. I've never seen that before either.

[Exit Stage Left]

Crows are social, territorial and assertive. They have a strong 'Pecking Order', and extend that to other species. Their behaviour is interesting to watch, as they are very intelligent, by bird standards.

[Sergeant Pluck]

There is a single crow's nest at the back of my current abode, quite low by crow standards, so I was afforded an excellent view of the proceedings earlier this year while a pair raised 3 chicks. It was fascinating, right from the 3 week process of choosing a nesting site. The male, for some reason, seemed keen to establish a new nest a few trees away from an existing next. Various inept attempts at nest building followed, interspersed with periods when they would both disappear for a few days at a time. Then the female pointedly sat herself in an old nest and the male eventually took the hint. They shared the nest-sitting and eventual feeding duties, very disciplined. It was interesting to watch how they dealt with the many neighbourhood cats and any other birds that dared intrude.

Anyway, back to these rabbits. It wasn't a single crow with rabbit issues, it was several independent crows and a variety of rabbits of different sizes. They'd give them a peck and then stalk about a bit where the rabbit had been. So that fits with your territorial theory. They just seemed to like moving these rabbits on.

[Ian H]

Crows are more intelligent then you might imagine. When you're that intelligent, sometimes you just like to have fun.

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's surprising what crows can and cannot kill (not that they seem to have been trying to kill these rabbits). I've seen house crows (so related species, similar size) in India grab a squirrel and then have to let it go because it fought back, while they'd be able to kill a rat. Not only were the rats larger than the squirrels, but I would have thought they'd be more fighty too. Perhaps the surprise there is about rats and squirrels rather than crows though.

[Arch]

Crows are social, territorial and assertive. They have a strong 'Pecking Order', and extend that to other species. Their behaviour is interesting to watch, as they are very intelligent, by bird standards.

They are pretty intelligent by the standards of some humans!