Getting up to scratch with interesting and little remarked feeding behaviour by Australian Raven picked up again lately with reappearance of shredded spider leaf nests on the Townsville Town Common Conservation Park road. Bird sat down yesterday for vigorous grooming after landing (below) on the road with small nest and fast finishing off the small inhabitants as they scurried in vain to hide under the road metal.
There may be seasonal elements to the spiders' breeding (beyond scope of this post) and the Australian Raven's liking for the prey, since remnant nests hadn't been seen on the road (where birds can see and run down or uncover fleeing spiders) for some months. Ravens began building or patching up nests about this time last year. As unlikely as it would seem, perhaps breeding and spider-hunting are related? Side note: quick scan of guides finds no mention of tufty crest showing on yesterday's bird.
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