Any birder can tell you that corvids, the group of birds that includes crows, ravens, magpies and jays, are highly intelligent, but new observations from Israel have revealed cooperative hunting behavior that has been previously unknown from groups of birds, according to BBC News. Brown-necked ravens were observed to band together to hunt Egyptian Mastigure lizards with tactics including lookouts, blocking the lizards' escape and maintaining guards until the lizard is dead. Individual birds and pairs of birds were participating in these hunts, but aside from hunting the birds did not flock together.

Tactics like this demonstrate that the birds are able to recognize the hunting situation, analyze what roles are needed and work together to be successful. Other species of corvids have demonstrated the ability to make tools to retrieve food, cache food for later use and deceive other birds about where their food is stored.

What feats of intelligence have your backyard birds demonstrated? Share your experiences in the comments!

Brown-Necked Ravens
Photo © Lip Kee Yap

Sia, a non-profit organization in Cyril, Oklahoma, is dedicated to preserving bald and golden eagles and other birds of prey as a means of preserving Comanche culture, history and rituals. According to NewsOK, Sia, the Comanche Ethno-Ornithological Initiative, was founded 10 years ago with the mission of conserving not only the birds, but their spiritual connection to the Comanche way of life.

Eagle feathers are sacred to the Comanche culture, and in fact "Sia" means feather in Comanche. Both the birds and their feathers have been used in ceremonies and clothes for hundreds of years, but as wild populations of the birds have dwindled, so too have the necessary feathers. Bill Voelker, Sia's founder, perfected an artificial insemination method for birds of prey and has successfully bred more than 300 bald and golden eagles that have been introduced into the wild.

In addition to preserving the birds, Sia collects feathers naturally shed from its eagles to distribute to different tribes for ceremonial purposes, dealing with more than 100 feather requests annually.

Visit Sia's website for more information and donation opportunities.

Golden Eagle
Photo © Just Chaos

A poor crop of pine cones this fall will lead to a much lower population of winter finches in Ontario, according to the North Bay Nugget. Birds such as common redpolls, pine siskins, white-winged crossbills and pine grosbeaks feed on the seeds buried deep in pine cones, and fewer cones means fewer birds this winter.

While these bird species are known to experience periodic irruptions with much higher winter populations, they will only visit areas with abundant food sources. This year, cone crops in the boreal forests north of Lake Superior and in the northern New England states are much larger, and that is where the birds will likely flock.

What winter finches visit your yard? Share your sightings in the comments!

White-Winged Crossbill
Photo © Michael Woodruff

It's not unusual to find large flocks of birds in parking lots foraging for fast food scraps, but the parking lots in Austin are decidedly less friendly for small birds, thanks to the work of falconer Steve Oleson. According to the American-Statesman, Oleson and his pair of Harris's hawks, Viggo and Meego, have been hired to scare off large flocks of grackles at the Rundberg Square strip mall for the second year in a row.

The management company that oversees Rundberg Square considers Oleson's services a type of pest control, since large flocks of highly vocal, aggressive birds can be disruptive for local businesses.

Trained birds of prey have been used in many different ways to help control pests, including scaring small birds at berry farms and even patrolling Warsaw metro stations for rock pigeons. It is more environmentally conscious to use birds of prey as pest control rather than poisons or other methods, and it helps to raise awareness of these magnificent predators, particularly since many superstitions consider hawks a menace or threat to livestock, pets or humans.

Do you agree with using falconry birds for pest control? Share your opinions in the comments!

Harris's Hawk
Photo © Ian Parkes