Saw a crow today in the field behind my house. Not an unusual sight except the crow was acting like some kind of raptor. What drew my attention was seeing the bird basically hovering over a patch of turf, then diving to ground only to emerge a few seconds later with a small rodent in its beak. As it flew it dropped the prize then swooped down and literally chased the prey around while repeatedly smashing its beak against it. Eventually the crow won and took off with whatever it was locked in its beak.
I've never seen a crow hover quite like that and I was wondering if this is normal or whether I was watching some learned behaviour, perhaps something the crow picked up by observing a hawk or another bird of prey?
