Stacking And Packing

Day 242: Crows and Ravens are masters of stacking and packing. I watched this Raven re-order his load several times to allow the addition of one more piece. He turned them end-for-end, aligned them, then slid his beak in under the lot being careful not to disturb his arrangement. Then he would march over to another piece of bread and pick it up by barely opening the tip of his beak. When he had all he could possibly carry, he took it back to the nest while his mate was engaged in a similar foraging exercise.

There is quite a bit of intelligence being exhibited here. The bird recognizes shapes as being able to fit together in the most efficient configuration. Ravens have been known to stack donuts in two manners. In one instance, the bird reached its beak through the hole of one donut to grab another, and in the second instance, a donut was carried horizontally with another balanced vertically with its base resting in the hole of the first.