crows dealing with obstinately uncooperative prey

I’ve never seen this before, but I recently saw some other strange crow behaviour. I have a field at the back of my house and all of a sudden noted a large black bird (not a blackbird) drop out of the sky followed by 5 or 6 crows which were all pecking at it as it fell. They then really aggressively started stabbing at it on the ground. I quickly opened the door & clapped my hands, which stopped the attack and a very relieved Jackdaw flew up & escaped, while the crowd were momentarily frightened away. I’m not sure if it was going to be dinner or whether it just strayed too close to a nest site? I realised that whilst they are very common birds, I don’t know much about them.

I suspect the jackdaw strayed too close to a nest. Crows are seriously protective of their nests and they, as corvids, will also recognise the threat offered by other corvids.

louisthedog said:

I recently saw a crow dropping a fat juicy slow worm and then seemingly abandon it - walking off, pecking at other stuff. It came back 3 minutes later, wrestling with it again, but only  managed to carry the writhing slow worm  another 10 metres or so, when it dropped it again. This time the crow was gone for over 10 minutes and I thought the slow worm had had a lucky escape (although I could not see in what state it was, it was too far away). When the crow showed up again, the slow worm seemed worn out and was finally carried off, folded neatly into the crows beak.

I would guess that the crow's actions were deliberate - they have strong enough beaks to injure, but they lack the sharpness of a raptor.  I would think a slow worm was worth the effort of coming back for, especially if it's feeding a family.

Yes, I think you’re right, there are some nests close by and the crows chase off pretty much any raptor that comes over hunting, red kites, buzzards or kestrels. I’d just never seen them attack a jackdaw before.

Crows are very intelligent birds, and probably the only way I can describe their reactions to situations, is "with pernach".

We had a breeding pair near to our garden last year and with the abundance of feeders we had at the time, were regular visitors, and unquestionably sharing with others, and the way they dealt with any sign of trouble or provocation was incredible. No aggression, just assertion without getting loud, no stand offs, just pure gentle assertion.