h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How lucky you are to have caught this bird acrobat!

This bird looks quite comic hanging upside down. You can imagine his friends saying 'Show us how long you can hang upside down!'

(I think they are probably rooks,since crows aren't sociable.)

I was surprised by your statement, MVP. We see crows in groups here. But maybe American crows are a different species?

Cornell Ornithology Lab says, 'American Crows congregate in large numbers in winter to sleep in communal roosts.'

We have some very noisy ones that show up in the backyard.

Great photo indeed - fascinating behaviour!

My bird book says rooks are more sociable than crows, but crows will gather together in winter - coincidentally I went birdwatching today and saw groups of each. Hard to tell exactly from this photo, but their beaks do possibly look pale enough for them to be rooks...

One thing I do know about crows is that they learn things and teach them to each other. You may have been watching a class in 'new flying techniques'.

Oh come on! Are you STILL trying to convince Richard Attenborough that your a new species of bat ?

He came back on Saturday - we have nicknamed him - but this time he was alone. We are looking into how we can set up a webcam facing the telegraph pole of choice - to share him with the rest of the

This might be a more fuel efficient way of taking flight (given enough starting height). Why do all that wing-flapping if you can get tons of momentum for free to set you off?

That or it just lost balance and tried to cover it up as "on purpose".

Hmm, all very good guesses but I still feel he was showing off to his mates the first time, as for the second time, well, he's perfecting his performance,

HA! Sussed it! It's an Australian crow blown off course by the Trade Winds and hasn't worked out where the bloody hell it is...